The Word of Dragontitan: (spinoff) The Magichinan Blood
by Titantnt
Summary: After WITCH beat up Cedric, saving Heatherfield from a catastrophe, a girl steps up as the new villain, ready to destroy everything on her path. Who is this new enemy and what are her aims? And what is with the weapons that she's using?
1. The girl with the red eyes

**Prologue "The girl with the red eyes"**

She sat with her legs crossed on her usual spot overlooking the city, usually taking place when she had stuff on her mind that wouldn't go away with a shake of her head, like now. It was less than a month ago since she last tried to commit suicide after a series of attempt. It was when she met that _boy_.

She played a little with her dagger and when a breeze of ice cold wind blew past her, she wrapped the fabric of her cloak around her. From the dark-white clouds thick flocks of snow started to fall down on her. She hid her head under her hood.

"I wonder what happened to him…" she muttered.

She laid backwards and supported herself with her arms, looking up at the sky. "I wonder what surprises he meant…"

As if on cue, she heard a large roar. She jumped up to her feet in a single motion and started running over the roofs of the building, utilizing parkour to move around. From the roofs she had a clear view of what was going on. A massive snake had appeared in the city and what seemed like 5 fairies were fighting it with the elements fire, water, earth, air and Life.

As she came closer she noticed that nobody seemed to panic. "Odd…" she muttered, deciding she would watch this battle unfold.

The snake seemed to win big time from the fairies but after a while the five fairies transformed into their pure elements and the battle was quickly turned around. Soon the snake was beaten and the five fairies turned into human teenagers.

The battle was over and the girl planned on leaving now and finding out what happened later on. "Ha! He was right. Live _is_ full of surprises."

"Indeed. Live _is_ full of surprises. Won't you agree?"

She turned around to see a man with long blond hair and a dark robe stand behind her. He was covered in a slime that reeked of puke. Through excellent smell and area awareness she knew that he teleported here somewhere mid-battle.

"You're no ordinary girl, are you? You've seen them fight. It takes no fool to see that there was a glamour around the city and _you_ watched right through it." The man said.

"And it takes no fool to know that you reek! Geez, take a bath before failing to sneak up behind me!" the girl shrieked, holding to her nose. "You smell like the inside of that snake!"

The man sniffed his sleeve and could impossible argue with her. "You're correct, he ate me…"

"So, who are you? It doesn't seem like they tried to save _you_." The girl asked. If they had tried, they would have gone after him or he had gone to them.

"I'm…" the man held his tongue. He seemed to think and a smile played on his lips. "Who I am doesn't matter. I admit those girls didn't tried to save me, though I'd gladly thank them. Could you do me a favour and figure out who they are?"

"Bargaining with a stranger. And I get?" the girl asked.

The man grinned. "Once I've… thanked them for saving me, I can give you anything you wish."

The girl looked down. _'This guy's lying for sure. But I can't put aside an offer like that. If he isn't lying then I won't have to risk my own hide hunting people for a _long_ time.'_

She looked the man back in his eyes. "Fresh human blood. The more powerful the person, the better."

The man smiled. "So you're a vampire, aren't you?" he asked. "Call that a deal. Work for me and I'll get you all the blood you want."

The girl smirked and looked down into the reflection of some glass, seeing her own bloodred eyes with slits in them. "A vampire. Yeah."

**...**

**A/N: First saying that I will stop 'The Other Side" and suddenly popping out two story. Hmmm... Maybe I should try to continue with "The Other Side" after all.**

**Anyway, this story was an idea I had overnight and somewhat randomly and I really wanted to put it down. See it as a treat because I finally finished chapter thirteen of my book!**

**Although the words "The Word of Dragontitan" are in front of the title, this only means that I utilize stuff out of my own universe and mix them with WITCH (Much like a crossover, really. It's just that "The Word of Dragontitan" isn't something you can chose from.). This is mainly indicated by the word "spinoff" instead of "Book X".**


	2. Meridian

**A/N: Heya! I've got a new chapter for those reading this. ^^  
I hope you enjoy it!  
(I didn't do a proofreading because it's boring and I'm writing because I like it, not to be grammar correct. As if you guys care.  
Also, because it was written over several days, you might find the style and the mood switch a lot.)**

**...**

**Chapter 2 "Meridian's new peril"**

Will walked with the girls up the playground of the school. Looking around she noticed that nobody around her had changed a bit after Cedric attacked Heatherfield a few days ago. But then, that was all because of the Regents putting everyone under a glamour spell so they naturally blamed all the damage the giant snake had done to the bad weather – although Will wondered how people could blame a completely crushed car on bad weather…

Now that Christmas was over, they had to fight a reoccurring enemy. School.

"I wonder if we could put all the teachers into that prison on Meridian." Irma wondered, putting her finger against her cheek in thoughts. Will could clearly see Irma's eyes sparkling with the ideas filling her mind.

"Oh, you mean we should WITCH all the teachers like with Collins?" Cornelia joked, looking grinning at Will.

Will blushed as she clearly recalled the incident in her mind. "It was an accident!" Will said back. "And even so, he deserved it! He misplaced my homework with some bacon. Now we're even."

The other girls giggled. "Maybe you should always write your homework on some bacon, then he won't forget?" Hay Lin asked.

Will imagined herself writing down her homework on some bacon and giving it to Collins.

"I don't think my mom will be pleased with me taking all the bacon." Will answered.

"Well, soon you can at least always give him your homework." Taranee said. Since a few months Collins and her mother have been dating and he was ready to move in, much to Will's disapproval.

Will got the shivers. "Having him as a teacher is horrible. Him dating my mom is a disaster. Him living in the same apartment… no word can describe that horror!"

Irma laid a hand on Will's shoulder. "How about a 'Guardian Unit' and WITCH him?"

Will really liked the idea and took the Heart out of her jacked. "How about yeah!"

Taranee took the heart from Will. "Will, we can't just WITCH him, again!"

"Hey!" Will yelped. She and Irma turned around and looked with pouted lips, puppy eyes and praying hands at Taranee. "Please! Let us WITCH him!"

"Who are you going to lynch?" A male voice question from behind them.

Will and Irma turned around and looked startled at the blond man on top of the stairs to the entrance. "What? We're not going to WITCH anyone! Who was speaking about WITCHing someone? Not us!"

Cornelia sighed. "Way to go, babble mouth!"

"What's a 'lynch'?" Will asked puzzled. As on cue, Taranee answered: "Lynching someone means that you murder a person who wronged you without a trial."

"What she said." The teacher answered. "Though I wonder… why do you want to lynch us teachers? What did we ever do wrong?"

"Homework." Four of the five girls chanted. Taranee merely sighed.

"Speaking about homework, I think it's time to go to class. Hey, maybe I'll see you in one of my classes." the man said as he heard the school bell rang.

Will heard Irma whisper something in Hay Lin's ear. "I hope I get him as my teacher. He's hot!"

"Say, what class do you give?" Taranee quickly asked before getting to move.

"Computer Science!" the man proudly said.

Will shrugged her shoulders and made her way past the teachers with the other girls. She looked around for the other girl and noticed Irma having a grimace on her face. "Why are all the hot guys so nerdy!"

The girls giggled, Cornelia the loudest for Irma's second mischief. The previous one was with VMJ – which he didn't liked to be called – who turned out to be a nerd too.

"So you think Martin is hot?" Cornelia joked. Only regretting her remark half as Irma called her "Corny!" out loud. "Martin isn't hot at all! I mean, look at him-"

Will and Taranee sighed for Irma's bad timing for the umpteenth time, for Martin had heard her say that and was walking past them with a downed expression on his face.

"An excellent start of the year, miss Lair." Cornelia teased.

**…**

Will shut her locker after she took out the book of terror she had to bring for homework: Math. She disliked the subject in so many ways. Ironically, it would take math to figure out just how much she hated it. Though she had a reference: Math was more evil than Phobos and that said a lot. It was almost sad that Cedric's stomach didn't digest him whole and they had to put him back in prison.

'I hope nobody helps him escape this time' Will wondered. She sighed as she rested with her back against het locker. One and a half years of fighting their butt off for the Oracle and the rest of the universe for their sake. Not that she complained about not getting rewarded, they were heroes on Meridian. But here… Well, here things were different. She was just the average student. Below average, if she took a look at her scores for the past years. All due to her double identity.

'Hopefully Phobos will put his own head into the dirt for once, so they hadn't to do it.' Will imagined Phobos in his long exalt blue robe having his head tucked into the ground like an ostrich, thinking 'rather shoving my own head into the sand than those girls do it again'

The image was portrayed to her in such a way that she couldn't hold back her snigger and laughed out loud, getting some attention from Irma and Taranee and the girl next to her.

Her name was Lavanya D'Nara. She was new on this school and supposedly moved here from some faraway country which she never managed to mention.

Will glanced trough the corners of her eyes at her, just like she did. Brown eyes, just like hers, but filled with a strange kind of darkness Will couldn't place. People told Will that her eyes were comforting. If that was so, then Lavanya's eyes were the exact opposite of that. What Will didn't understand was how her eyes could look so sad, even though she looked quite good. She avoided people and people seemed to avoid her. Will shook her head. 'Of course people avoid her. She's new here. Rather shy too. She didn't mutter a word during French classes.'

Lavanya broke eye contact and closed her locker and turned to walk away.

"See you tomorrow." Will wasn't sure why she said it, but both she herself as well as Lavanya were surprised. She stood there, frozen. Why? Didn't anyone say that ever to her? A quick nod was all she gave and maybe the tiniest of smiles. Lavanya turned away with her backpack hanging half on her shoulder, her long brown braid brushing over her legs as she went.

"Hello? Earth to Will, are you there?"

Irma's voice was sudden to her and Will startled. "Huh, what?"

"Yup, she's in outer space." Irma replied. "Sorry, but I have to fetch my brother. See you all tomorrow!"

Will shook her head wildly to get her thoughts back on track. "Uh, yeah. Bye!"

Taranee turned to Will and both made contact. "So, I don't suppose you don't have any time left?" Taranee asked.

"Nope. Evil's been calling." Will sighed as the two started to walk.

Taranee looked worried at her. At first she thought it was for real, but then realised it was fake. But Will could clearly read the disappointment in her eyes. Even she, the wiz kid, could have a dislike at school sometimes.

Both girls chanted "Math" at the same time and giggled.

"Miss Rudolph could really give us extra credit, you know. We saved her world twice!" Will complained. "But no. All we get is extra homework." Will snorted and wondered what would happen if she would release Phobos and would only put him back in exchange of no homework. Will shook her head. 'Bad idea, Will! Or do you want to skip the next nights too?'

"Will, I think you should jump to bed right after you finished your homework." Taranee said. Will liked the idea. If she could just switch the two places…

"No, don't. You know your mother will scold you if your grades drop even lower." Taranee suddenly said. Will looked startled at her and instantly did a mind check. Taranee had been reading her mind. "Stay out of whatever is left of my brains, will you?"

Taranee smiled at the pun, but looked worried at her. "Sorry, but I'm just worried what is on your mind. You're a bit off lately."

Will sighed the deepest sight of the day and laid a hand on her chest where the heart was hanging on her neck. "All the guardian stuff is just catching up on me. I can see that you suffer the same."

Taranee nodded. "You're correct. But even so, don't push yourself."

Will ignored her words when she noticed the crossing. The way to her left was towards Matt. "I'll go past Matt if you don't mind."

Taranee nodded understandingly and waved her goodbye and walked to the school exit.

"And yes! I'll do my homework before collapsing!" Will said after her.

After a short walk she reached the locker of the boy. Matt was still packing up. He looked quite different than from her Shagon morph. But she couldn't complain, with a mask he was harder to kiss anyway.

Matt turned surprised to her and she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him on the lips. The two looked smiling at each other. 'Well, with Phobos beaten up, I don't have to worry about his sorry hide anymore. That's another plus.'

Matt thought exactly the same, although a little more nice. Even though Will had her reasons when he had been ignoring her so he could learn how to fight. She still worried about him a little, even with his Shagon morph. Their enemies had become increasingly stronger and Cedric was by far the worst of them, not even Shagon could protect Matt.

Will's bubble was burst when she heart Nigel's voice. "Matt, you're getting ready for practice?"

Both she and Matt sighed. It's been like this for a long while. Either evil or practice or whatever, buth they never could be together for longer than moments. During the vacation she had to go to family a lot and she was pretty exhausted too.

"Really, practice again?" Will questioned. Matt nodded defeated. "Yeah, sorry."

In an impulse she pushed him away. "Never mind, I got homework to do." Without taking second glance she walked away. Having walked somewhere down the hallway she stopped and shook her head. 'Why did I just do that?' The tiredness must have gotten to her head, probably.

Without notice she was suddenly hit by a speeding mass. She fell backwards and hit the ground hard, pain erupting through her back as it took the weight of two people followed by a hit on her head and a simultaneous yelp.

The person on top of her rolled quickly off her. She muttered things under her breath. "I'm really sorry! Are you all right?"

Will recovered from the impact and sat upright. The pain in the rest of her body numbed, but there was a sharp pain in her lip and her mouth filled with an iron taste. She held the back of her hand against her mouth and once she looked at it being taint red, she knew for sure her lip was bleeding.

"Damn it! Watch where you're going." Will scolded, trying from bleeding too much. She then looked at her attacker. Will was surprised to see it was Lavanya. She seemed to be unhurt, probably her hit was cushioned by her body. The odd thing was that Lavanya was looking intensely at her and was biting slightly on her lower lip, not much of guild but more of resisting some temptation, whatever it might be.

Lavanya helped her standing. "I'm really, really… sorry." Her words began to roll away. Will noticed she gulped. Lavanya muttered a short "no.." before suddenly grabbing Will's sweater and pulling her closing, kissing her on the lips.

Will's mind went blank. Normally she would do this with Matt. But why was this girl suddenly doing that? Girls weren't supposed to kiss anyway!

The sensation of the kiss suddenly turned into an awkward feeling as Lavanya's tongue touched her lips. At first Will thought Lavanya was trying to French her, but she then felt how Lavanya was licking her lips instead. It was only short before they both got a hold of themselves and moved apart. Will pushing herself away and Lavanya managing to get herself on track.

"S-sorry." Lavanya muttered.

Both girl stared into each other's eyes. 'Why did she have to do that?' Will wondered. But wonder turned into shock as she noticed Matt standing on the corridor, looking surprised at her with a somewhat shocked expression on his face.

Will startled. 'Please no! Don't let him think I was kissing her!'

Matt just stood there. Why did he only stand? Why didn't he say anything to her?

Nigel came from beside him. "Hey, are you coming?" Matt had become seemingly brain dead and allowed himself to be dragged on by Nigel.

Will turned to look at the girl, nearly mouthing 'why', but saw a tear in her eye. "Sorry!" Lavanya nearly screamed and she ran past Will, holding tight to her books. Will was somewhat numb too. She shook her head and moved on. 'I'll just explain to him that it was an accident. Surely he'll understand!' she said to reassure herself.

Once at home she finished her homework as best she could and let herself fall on her bed. Homework didn't turn out to go well because of Lavanya's kiss. What was she trying to do? Why did she lick her lips? Will gulped as she realised that it could be because of the blood. Will shuddered slightly. "Is she a vampire or so?" Without further notice she fell asleep.

She dreamed of how she hugged Matt again like before and kissed him. But the moment that they kissed was switched with that of Lavanya and back and forth between them. Will went near nuts when she smelled something awful. Still in her dream she said to Matt "Geez, you smell like a burnt Blunk!" Not knowing that she muttered them out loud and that the latter could hear her.

Will startled wake and saw Blunk sitting on the edge of the bed. "Girls must come! Meridian in great danger! Gaint creatures everywhere!" the pasling whispered/screamed fearful. Will's mind took a while to register what was going on, when she did she startled.

"What's going on?" Will asked, stopping herself from grumping. 'Guess Phobos isn't an ostrich after all!'

"Girls come quick! Metal monsters everywhere! Even destroyed Blunk's treasures!"

The last thing almost put Will off, but she sent the mental note to the other girls. It being 2 AM the girls weren't happy at all. 'Will, what's wrong?'

Will stood up and wanted to dress into something proper, only to realise she already was. 'Blunk is at my place. He says Meridian is under attack!'

The groans trough the mental connection were immense.

'Damn't! What is it now? Did Phobos escape?' Irma wondered. Will shook her head, even though it held no use. 'No, he's only saying something about weird metal things destroying everything. Lets meet in Hay Lin's basement and head to Elyon!'

Will teletransposed herself to the basement and waited for the other girls to arrive. Each of them was sleepy but the fact that Elyon was (yet again) in danger woke them up enough. Will let them transform into their guardian forms and made a fold to the Palace. Once they were though they ran into Elyon immediately. She too was half asleep, still walking in her night garments.

"Guys! Great you could come! We got some really big problems! I don't know what to say, so I'll show you."

Elyon guided them towards a balcony. As Will came closer to the outdoor, she started to hear strange and frightening sounds. Shooting and explosions, screaming and screeching metal. As she and her friends stepped through the arc up the balcony she gasped and held her hands in front of her mouth in shock.

Not a week ago they had beaten up Phobos back into prison, but Meridian was under attack again. Whomever was the attacker wasn't clear: besides Nerrisa and Phobos being in prison, the army that attacked the town consisted out of robotic contraptions made from a coppery material.

Will could make out at least two forms of the contraptions: bipod manlike robots attacking with melee sweeps of their left arm and capable of firing electric discharges with their right arm, and spiderlike hexapods which could use two 'arms' to attack and fire a small cannon that was mounted on their back.

In the distance was something far worse that those machines: A massive hexapod spiderlike machine with long arms with drills on the end, a large missile rack on its back and guns mounted all over it. Once could easily say that it was nearly as massive as the palace itself.

"What are these things?" Irma questioned as first. The same question had bothered Will. What were these steampunkish contraptions? How could they exist? They couldn't have been built here due to Meridian still living in the medieval age. Gunpoweder and steam engines didn't belong here, yet these machines were using these and propelled by.

Where were they coming from and whom was controlling them? It had to be a new villain because Phobos, Nerissa and Cedric were all locked up in different places and none of them had been reported escaped. Nor couldn't it be one of them, for building an army like this must have taken some time and none of the three had utilized any of these during their battle.

But one thing was clear to her: they had to stop these contraptions now.

Will pulled the Heart up out of her sweater and glanced a moment at each of the girls. They all nodded in agreement and Will transformed them into their guardian form. They flew up into the air and started to counterattack.

Each of the girls' power seemed to have its own advantage over the machines. Hay Lin's air could cut through the exterior wires that seemed to move the contraptions, rendering them immobile. Taranee's fire could easily melt the iron of which the contraptions were made, next to blowing up the ammo stashes inside of them and making the boilers of their engines overcook and explode. Irma's water was able to either out the steam engines and wet the gunpowder. Cornelia's powers over earth were an excellent match to them as she could easily break them apart at the joints, crush them or otherwise demolish them.

Will was determined to be as useful as the others. In the first quest to save Meridian she'd been totally useless due to her not having any powers. In the second quest she did have a bit of usefulness, but she still caused more problems than actually solving them. But this time she'd be very useful. Her charged would short-circuit these thing with ease or at least detonate the gunpowder prematurely.

As she flew over some of the contraptions she let lose a barrage of lightning bolts, all hitting their targets, not looking back as she continued her run.

She could barely dodge the bullets shot at her by the spiders and the electric bolts shot at her by the men. She could just put a shield up as one of the bolts was shot towards her. It didn't seem to hurt that much. However, she couldn't afford to get hit by anything more and was forced to land. She was quickly surrounded by many contraptions, but not letting fear get the better of her she send lots of bolts around her. As the flash of her attack disappeared she was surprised to see the machines still standing tall. One of them manlike machines shot a bolt at her.

Will put an shield around her, but noticed that the strength of this bolt surpassed the previous hit she took many times. It didn't take long for her to realise. _'No way! There are getting stronger because of me?'_

The machines attacked her with full force. The only way she could escape them was going high enough into the air. The bolts and shells that missed her cause collateral damage all around the ambush site.

High in the sky, Will could see that the other girls were much more successful than her at this. Even Elyon was flying around, giving some rather powerful punches around.

Will sighed. 'There must be a way for me to be useful.'

She saw the massive spider contraption causing havoc at the edge of town. It was putting one of its driller arms into the ground and made a sweep though the earth, leaving a deep trench behind and demolishing several buildings. _'Maybe the one controlling them is driving that machine. If I take it down, the rest of them should stop too.'_

She flew towards the machine and immediately spotted a glass dome at the front of the machine and a glass dome on top of a small tower in the middle. _'That must be the place where they're steering it!'_

Knowing that her electricity would only make things worse, she flew to the ground to pick a large rock up with her greatly increased strength and flew towards the top glass dome. Once close enough she started to spin around her axle and gave the rock a huge momentum before releasing it. With a bit of luck it smashed right into the dome.

'_Yeah!'_ Will yelled gladly, but noticed the contraption was still moving. However, the contraptions on the ground and all around her stopped moving. _'So that must have been the relay for the troops.'_

All Will had to do now was to destroy the other dome and the contraption would stop to move. She fetched a new rock to hurl and launched it the same way as the previous one. But as it was heading towards its target, it was suddenly hit by a massive lightning bolt. The odd thing about it was that it was black in colour. The rock was destroyed and from the dust cloud shot another black lightning bolt that nearly hit Will by just a little.

'_Holy cow! Who shot that thing?'_ she wondered. The only way to find out was to fly closer, towards the one who nearly shot her out of the sky. Luckily, the guns weren't aiming for her and the previous rock seemed to have damaged the missile launcher as it didn't fire anymore.

As Will flew closer she could make out a cloaked person standing on top of the damaged tower. She formed several gestures by combining both her hands and shot another black lightning bolt at her. Will moved aside and the bolt missed by just an arm length.

'_I don't know who that is, but I'm going to make sure he'll pay!'_ Will grumbled. She flew straight at the cloaked person and landed in front of her on top of where the dome was. It was larger than she had thought.

There was lots of smoke covering the dome, mostly steam coming from severed steam pipes but also black smoke from some of the chimneys around the contraption. The cloaked person seemed to use the smog to her advantage and sent another lightning bolt towards Will.

Will dodged it and ran closer to get hand-to-hand combat, else she'd risk having to use her lightning and she didn't want to risk this person becoming stronger because of it. The person seemed to notice her intention and drew something's like a weapon and ran towards Will. At the first slash of the dagger Will had to retreat and she jumped a few meters backwards. _'Darn! It's no use against him.'_

Now that the man was out of the smog, Will noticed something extraordinary; the man wasn't a man, but a girl. The lines of her body were clearly of a young famine around Will's age.

Her clothes consisted out of loose casual Earth clothes similar to Will's generic cloths, all in dark, a dark cloak with the hood over her head. She also wore fingerless gloves and a bleak mask.

"You're a girl?" Will questioned surprised out loud.

The girl glanced at Will, that she was surprised was only noticeable in her voice "Of course. What did you think I was? A man?"

Will nodded slightly.

The girl shrugged and ran towards her, switching her dagger to her left hand. "I don't care who you are, but I'm going to stop you here and now!"

"That's my line!" Will yelled at her and started to run towards her too. She charged her right hand and intended to punch the girl.

She hadn't really thought of her action and the girl's right fist went through Will's defences and hit her on the left side of her face. The girl didn't seem to be clear either as Will managed to hit the left of her face too, expect Will had a charge in her punch.

As Will's fist connected the two were suddenly blown apart by a large blast of ominous energy. Will was flung towards one side of the plateau and the girl hit the central pillar and slit down.

Her body ached all over _'What was that energy just now?' _Trying not to give up, she slowly started to sit up. The girl seemed to be less harmed by the blast as she was already standing next to Will. _'When did she become so quick?'_

Will was unable to resist and her body ached as the girl pulled her up at her neck. _'And so strong!'_

Will's eyes scanned the face of the girl. The mask had broken under the force of her punch and revealed only a corner of the girl's face. Her eye and eyebrow and a bit of hair that appeared from under the hood. Will gulped as she realised the colour of the eye and the hair: both were of a deep red colour. More so, the pupil of the girl was a slit, rather than a circle.

The girl suddenly wiped her finger over Will's left cheek, a sharp pain appeared over what appeared to be a cut. The girl stuck the red finger under her mask and supposedly in her mouth. "Darn, you taste well!" she stated happily. "It won't hurt to bring a snack home, would it?"

She removed her mask with her free mask and placed it so that Will couldn't see her whole face. She felt something wet and soft stroke her cheek. "I'd almost succumb to you in exchange for your blood." The girl chuckled. "But you alone won't suffice and I can't risk you drinking you dry. Quality and quantity aren't friends at all. Such pity."

Will gulped. What is wrong with her? Was she just talking about drinking my _blood_? Is she a vampire of some sorts?

As the girl moved her face away and placed the mask back Will could spot the grin of the girl, as well as her canine. To Will's surprise they were indeed like the ones of a generic vampire; longer and pointier than what was normal.

The girl let Will go and both took some steps backwards. "You're a vampire?" Will asked.

The girl chuckled. "Oh my. You realised?" the tone she used was far from serious. "Well, then. I have no other choice but to retreat. Of course, not without a farewell gift!"

Will didn't understand her joke, but from the corners of her eyes she saw one of the arms of the contraption rise and aim horizontally towards the palace, but was aiming vertically way to high. Several parts of the drill fell off, leaving some sort of shell behind. Then the back of the shell started to lighten up and Will could hear the rumbling of a really strong rocket engine.

"They call it the Devastator, a rocket propelled bomb of 11 tons. I'd like to stay for the blast, but I must retreat." The girl joked.

Will was troubled. Either stop the missile from destroying the palace or capture the girl. She placed her bet on the girls stopping the shell and attacked the girl. The girl started to form gestures with her hands and seemed to choose to jump back rather than to block or to attack. Will didn't really care what the gestures were for, as long as she could capture the girl.

The girl hit the pillar in the middle with her back and couldn't move back anymore. Will put a lot of strength in her fist and aimed for the girl's stomach. The girl suddenly placed her hands in such a way that Will moved her stomach into the girl's palms. Will felt a large force built up at the girl's palms. The force was released and the massive force that pushed her backwards knocked her out.

**…**

Will felt a splash of cold water flush over her face followed by a loud yell of Cornelia calling Irma's name. The shock brought her back to consciousness and she sat up. She lay on the ground, surrounded by her friends and piles of rubble and broken contraptions.

"Are you all right?" Cornelia asked worried.

Will checked her body and felt that it ached all over but she wouldn't let the girls notice. "No, I'm fine. What happened?"

"After all the robots shut down we went to search for you, but couldn't find you. Then this massive thing was flying towards the palace and we were barely able to stop it. Once that massive spider thing drilled itself a way into the ground and disappeared, we found you nearby."

Will startled. "That thing dug itself a way into the ground?"

Cornelia nodded and glanced worried away. "Yeah. It was really fast at that too. But before we could chase it the tunnel collapsed."

Will noticed that there was something with Cornelia. Without a warning she learned why. "Damn it Will! What made you think you could take that thing on your own? You could have been death!"

Will gulped startled. She knew why, because she wanted to make herself useful and she was, right? She made sure all those contraptions were stopped and she forced the girl to retreat. They'd get her some other time, but for now the palace was save.

"We should tell the Oracle about this. Even though we beat that thing, the palace won't survive another wave of those things." Taranee thought out loud. After Cornelia helped Will stand.

"Shouldn't we help these people?" Hay Lin asked.

Will shook her head. The Oracle had to know about this new enemy. She wondered if the Oracle knew if that girl was a vampire.

"Elyon said she'd take care of the town. With the damage we have done, they won't be back for some time." Irma said.

Will took the Heart and made a fold and they all passed through and stepped into Kandrakar.

The place wasn't healed just yet. Most of the architecture was still destroyed. Will wondered why it took so long. She imagined that the Oracle would have fixed everything by now.

Tibor appouched them. "Gaurdians. What is the reason of your visit?"

"Meridian was attacked." Cornelia said.

Tibor seemed to be startled, but kept posture. He then looked worried at the girls. "I'm sorry to tell, but Kandrakar will be unable to help."

Will was surprised to hear this. "What do you mean 'Kandrakar won't help'?"

She noticed that Tibor hesitated to tell them, but he told them eventually. "The attacks on Kandrakar have been far worse than we imagined and left us with little energy. Usually the fortress relies on the energy of the Aurameres, but with this much damage to be repaired, we cannot take enough energy off them without lessening your powers. At first this was our plan, but with this new threat posing Meridian that's impossible to do now."

If they drew on the energy of the Aurameres now, the girls would have too little for themselves and as a result wouldn't be able to fight effectively.

"You guys really always have a reason not to help us, don't you?" Will heard Cornelia say angry. Taranee seemed to agree with her as much as Irma did. Hay Lin didn't seem to respond much.

Now that Will looked at her, she noticed that Hay Lin was looking a little off. As the three other girls bickered with Tibor about Kandrakar never helping, Will stepped towards Hay Lin. "Hey, are you alright?"

Hay Lin glanced a little up. "Why didn't you try and stop that bomb?"

Will looked surprised at her. "Because I trusted you could stop it and I wanted to make sure the girl wasn't going to do any more harm to you guys. Why?"

Hay Lin shook her head suddenly as if to throw a bad idea away. "Nothing."

**...**

**A/N: Well, I hope you liked it!  
Now, who is Lavanya actually and who is the girl on that big machine thingy? And what's Hay Lin's problem?  
And how is Will going to talk herself out of the issue with Matt that she never frenched Lavanya?  
**

**So many questions and no answers! That's my trademark, hehe!  
**

**btw, for those interrestend, the machines are the Clockwork Spider, Clockwork Man and the Land Leviathan from the game 'Rise of Legends'. It's old, but I think it's a good game. You can look the pictures up at the internet. **


	3. Bitten

**A/N: There is some stuff down there about electronics that might be faulty because of translations. Sorry for that in advance.  
**

**I've set up a repeating poll about which chapter I should finish. You can chose between one of the five stories and the poll will be reset after a chapter is uploaded/finished.  
Be sure to vote if you wish a new chapter for one of the others!**

**…**

_Chapter 3 'Bitten'_

As Will walked through the rubble, she was deeply lost in thoughts of the events of yesterday. While she was supposed to help clean up a bit, all she could think about was the girl who caused this whole mess. Houses were turned into piles of wood and lumber. Where that giant machine hadn't come, the damage wasn't really that great compared to what that machine did, those men and spiders were bugs – ironically they literally were, as the machine risked crushing them under its giant feet –

The machine had dug massive trenches with its drilling arms, made huge holes with its weight and did lots of damage with the missiles and explosives. Large parts of the town were on fire too. Irma and Taranee put the fires out with ease though.

There wasn't just material damage. Walking through the town, Will had seen various death bodies. Men, women, children, pets and livestock. All were massacred. It could have been very possible that Hay Lin had been crying because of this. Nerissa, Phobos nor Cedric were as horrible as this girl to kill these people with so little content. Of course it was undeniable that Nerissa killed Cassady and that Phobos and Cedric killed rebels. But these were innocent people. Children among them. There was no reason to kill them at all.

And what about that big missile? It was going to destroy the whole palace if the girls didn't stop it!

What was that girl thinking? What was her goal? Where did she come from and where did she get these machines?

In the storm of questions, Will got lost in her mind and failed to noticed that she was running out of road – to the left and the right there was still lots of it, although somewhat damaged and filled with debris - she tripped over some metal legs and fell into the husk of one of those manlike machines. The shock of hitting the steel pulled her out of her storm of questions.

Will climbed out of the husk and looked surprised how the machine lay lazily back in the house, as if it was thrown into it. For the first time she had a real good look at it. It was at least as high as a two-store high house, maybe somewhat higher.

The manlike part description was mainly because they were manlike. Having two legs, a body, two arms and a head. But the comparison stopped there mostly. The left hand was made up out of three metal fingers and the right hand was more of a box, a transformer, where it could shoot electric bolts from. The feet were mostly two stumps. It was pretty bulky and open. If one would use a fire weapon like a pistol or a hunting rifle, one could hit the boiler and make it explode. The head was oddly angulated with two eye like holes with glass that were unequal in shape and size.

The fact that the machine was open revealed an interesting fact: the machines moved through steel wires from within the main body, rather than having the moving parts in the arms or legs. It reminded Will of a muscle in the human body that if you moved your finger, it would move muscles all the way down to your lower back. Apparently, this was some similar way of getting physical power somewhere.

Will got somewhat excited how the machine worked and climbed back onto it and started to peel of the front metal plate. It took her – even in her guardian form – quite some strength to remove it. But once the parts that held it together were broken, it was removed with ease and granted Will a peek inside.

The boiler and the furnace were mainly forming the guts of the man. Above it was a little steam engine connected to pipes from below and an exhaust pipe on the back. Through pistons and gears it could move a whole set of axles and gears and pistons that were moving the wires. The amount of gears was astonishing large and the complexity was giving Will a headache. Her first thought was to rest her interest aside, but once she spotted electrical wires, her interest was sparked.

It was first hand obvious that the wires were meant to direct current to the right hand weapon, but the wires were only tiny and more bundled. Much more like a computer or such.

One of the bundles of wires ran towards the head of the machine. Will removed the face panel of the machine and got a look inside the head. The head was the most headache giving of all: it was filled with miniscule gears and axles all over it. It almost looked like sand, so tiny. Will noticed that these gears were moved separately from the bigger gears. These seemed to be moved by tiny cylinders, much like electrical engines.

With all the electrical stuff, where was the battery? Will hadn't been able to spot it yet.

She climbed back down while following the cables in the other direction and around the middle of the chest all wires seemed to come together in a central point behind the 'muscles' of the machine. She pulled them aside – completely ignoring the damage she caused – and found a small odd shaped sphere devise. Again, it was build-up of several gears, but mainly of various rings around a pink globe. The wires were connected with the globe and Will concluded this had to be the battery. She also noticed how a thicker wire was connected to the metal frame of the machine. It explained why her attacks made the machines physically stronger; it was grounded to itself. Therefore, when she electrocuted them, the current would be stored inside this globe. Will cut the wires, dislodged it and pulled it out. _'I think I want to experiment with this later on. If I can find it's weakness, I can reverse my healing powers and finally be useful!'_ Will thought happily, smiling while she held the spherical device. _'Or maybe I can figure how to insert and extract energy from it and get energy from it whenever I want and put energy in when I don't need it.'_

Will climbed off the machine. First she needed to hide it. _'I can't have the girls see it, though. I do not want another power incident like on Zambala again! I know power changes people, but come one, a little bit for support can't hurt? Maybe I could make them so that the other girls can use them too, then they can't complain!'_

Will looked puzzled around. _'I don't suppose the girls will miss me. I mean, it's just a fold back home for a second…' _The girls wouldn't notice her disappearance, as long as she kept it to a few minutes she would be fine. It was a risk, but getting to know more about these machines was tempting and would probably be worth the risks.

She took the Heart and slashed in the air the make a fold. In a few quick paces she was in her room. Thank the Oracle he taught her how to fold! This made interplanetary travel much easier, especially compared to a Heart that could make portals to random places.

Her mother was working as usual. This gave Will the chance to roam around in her home without anyone there to notice her. Just in case, she transformed back to her human form. Especially because it was somewhat more comfortable then her older-self, even though the gap of age was closing with the month.

Will put the sphere on her desk beside a frog cuddle and some residue homework and in the shadow of her room she noticed that the pink globe almost seemed to glow. Will wanted to hide it, but became tempted to see what would happen if she stored some of her own energy inside. She had her moment alone, so why not? Besides, she would be able to use the energy in the evening after she spent her day on Meridian helping people.

Will tried to memories certain parts of the classes nature science. Currents always needed a phase and a neutral, and the sphere needed some way to be charged too. Since she could make them more powerful by hitting them with lightning, it only made sense that she could use the wire attached to the exterior frame would be for grounding the battery and would function as a phase. Now she needed a neutral, an output. The cable that originally lead to the electric weapon of the man would suffice. Will took hold of the former wire with her right hand and took the latter wire with her left hand.

'_Okay, let's see what happens if I apply a current.'_ Will thought. She carefully let some of her power flow into her right arm and felt how a different power started to enter her left arm. As expected she felt her right arm weakening slightly, but it surprised her that her left arm started to feel stronger and the pink globe started to become darker of colour, while the Heart started to become lighter. This didn't make sense as she was supplying it with power. The less energy the Heart had, the darker it grew. So why was it lightening up?

"Somewhat curious, are we?"

The hushed voice suddenly next to her ear startled Will.

The startle made her lose focus and the flow of power went haywire. The flow of energy was massive and unstoppable. The weird thing was that not only did her body feel much stronger by the moment from her left side, her mind started to pass out on the right side. As she slowly passed out the current went haywire within her body too and started to do weird things to her body. Will felt becoming dizzy, and couldn't let go of the wires, her body simply didn't do what she wanted anymore. Her whole body felt out of balance and started to hurt all over.

Will felt a tug on the back of her neck and could just see the Heart being taken and thrown away. The surge of energy in her body came to a sudden standstill and her body felt as an old TV that you shut down. Everything went black and she barely noticed how someone caught her.

When Will opened her eyes, she gasped in surprise. _'What just happened to me? And who…'_ Will didn't finish her sentence as she sat up. On the other end of her bed sat the girl in the outfit of yesterday. The mask was whole again and she kept her cloak close around her body, but as soon as she saw Will rise she shot towards her and – gently – pushed her down at the middle of her chest. Will didn't feel any of the strength she possessed moments before fainting, but her mind was clear though.

The girl stood over her on hand and feet. "You shouldn't stand up that soon. Not many people survive that, you know.' The girl asked surprisingly worried. Will looked surprised at her. "Are you seriously asking that while keeping me trapped?"

"Trapped? How so? You don't like it?" The girl asked teasing, slightly lowering her body so both their chest brushed slightly against each other. But rather than Will had thought the teasing was, it was rather friendly. It felt friendly, though it also felt somewhat uncomfortable.

"Yes, trapped. You're my enemy and you attacked my home?"

The girl seemed to tilt her head a little. "Since when are we enemies?"

"Since you attacked Meridian of course!"

The girl tilted her head a little more. "Huh? You know about that. Ah! I get it. You know your sister's secret, don't you?"

Will looked confused up. "I don't have a sister… Wait, is my 'sister' an older version of me?" Before having heard the answer, Will started to snigger. _'I can't believe someone believed my guardian form is my older sister!'_

"Yeah? Why?"

Will couldn't hold the laugh back and laughed till her belly ached and tears were flowing down her temples. The pain numbed the laughter a bit to a point where a certain thought crossed her mind. The girl might have been confused about her two forms, but the real dimwit was Will herself. The girl knew her 'normal' identity now, where she lived and was currently holding her down.

She messed up big time, that was for sure. And if she couldn't get back to Meridian quickly, the girls might get worried and search for her. Although this might be a good thing at first, Will wasn't in to be rescued for the umpteenth time!

Without warning the girl covered her eyes and Will felt how she leaned closely against her again and held her down. Will heard the girl remove her mask and felt how her lips touched the skin between her neck and shoulder. The lips parted and a moist tongue gently licked her skin, making the hairs on Will's back stand up from the lewd feeling. The tongue stroked her skin and it brought a strange sensation to it. Her body felt a little numb and the area around the kiss lost its sense for touch all together. Will barely felt how two protrusions of equal size and standing just a little apart pierced her skin. The girl suckled slightly and the sensation made Will nearly faint. After a few suckles the girl backed off and put her mask back on and let Will see again.

Her right hand went instinctively towards the wound and she gently rubbed the numb skin. She was still a little off from what the girl did to her and looked somewhat lost at her.

"Don't worry about the wounds. They have already closed up thanks to your previous accident. But there _is_ something else…"

The girl climbed off Will and walked towards the window and climbed onto the windowsill. Once Will put to facts together, she knew what the girl was talking about. "You're a vampire…"

"And I've bitten you."

Will's world collapsed in a single moment. How could she have been so careless to let events unfold into this? Not only was she at the mercy of the girl without able to put up much of a fight – all because of some darned curiosity – and now she was infected by a vampire. How stupid had she been? How stupid would the girls think she was?

"The virus has an incubation period of 72 hours and stays passive until then. Once it is active it will turn you. However, there is a change you won't survive due to your crystal. Word of advice, don't use it if you wish to live."

This girl was really smart. She just acted like she was stupid! A single bite and she took out the leader of the Guardians. She'd turn into a vampire but be powerless until then or die while using the Heart. Neither were pleasant situations to end up into and Will dearly hoped there was a third option.

"Don't tell me there is no cure." Will muttered as she sat up, still holding anxiously to the wound. Real tears rolled down her cheek.

The girl sniggered. "You're in luck. _I_ am the cure. Somewhat. I can delay the virus for another 72 hours, but in exchange I want a sip of your blood."

Will felt anger fill her. Both anger for the girl as herself. The girl for becoming the new villain, but mostly herself for being such a horrible leader.

"No way! I'm not going to give into something like that. I'd rather die than let you do that!"

The girl shrugged and stood up. "Suit yourself. Just call me when you changed your mind."

"The only time I'll call you is the moment I'll kill you." Will muttered angry. Her left hand gripped into her shoulder.

The girl turned on the ball of her foot towards Will. There was something threatening in her pose. Will could feel the lustreless inside the girl. "Heed your words. There is someone far more dangerous than a girl trying to protect something; a girl with nothing left to protect."

The words somehow hit Will hard, as if the words were especially for her. Now Will was protecting her live, but once those 72 hours were over she had nothing to protect anymore.

"I'm Ruby by the way, in case you need me."

The girl stepped back without fear and jumped down from the window. Will startled and feared she just suicide and climbed to her feet ran towards the window, but as she looked down the girl was already gone.

Will fell on her knees and started to sob and scold every single word she knew. _'What have I done?'_ she felt hopeless and for a good reason. She'd die with the Heart and the girls would notice not a thing beforehand or she'd live as a vampire but the girls would surely resent her for being such a weakling – not to mention the Oracle's judgement – and Matt would surely hate her now. And if she were to avoid both, she had no choice but to remain Ruby's eternal cattle.

Will almost felt like just jumping out of the window. _'No! I won't lose to her like this! I've held out against Phobos and Nerrisa, I can beat her too! I. Won't. Give. UP!'_

With this new determination Will stood up and searched for the Heart. The girl had only thrown it away and luckily not taken it from her for some reason. She repaired the string by tying it into a knot and hung it around her neck. She cleaned her eyes and made a fold to Meridian. She knew something Ruby did not realise yet: Lavanya.

Lavanya was without doubt a vampire too. She would give her a full cure for something much less ridiculous. All she needed to do was to convince Lavanya to give her the cure and then she would call Ruby and make her pay. Ruby wasn't as smart as she thought. This time Will held the ropes of the puppeteer.

**...**

**A/N: I hope you liked this chapter! It was short, yes, but some big stuff has happened!  
I hope next chapter will be longer! (After that there might come some suspense.)**


	4. The Mystery of the Infinite City I

**Note: Sorry for forgetting constantly about several other characters. Let's say that Matt, Huggles and Napoleon drained their energy while glamoring the city and need to recharge.**

**Anyway, I hope you like it!**

…

_Chapter 4 'The Mystery of the Infinite City I'_

…

Will smiled as she stepped on the school grounds. If Lavanya would help her, Ruby would be in serious trouble. Will could lay an ambush for her when they meet next time and stop her.

There was still the potential risk that Lavanya and Ruby could be one the same person, but it would be a bad play for Ruby on that part because Will was prepared for such an ambush. Usually she put the Heart in her bag, but now she had it hanging around her neck. Luckily it had lost some of its pinkish glow from yesterday although it wasn't all gone. At least nobody noticed the Heart.

All Will needed was to get a moment alone with Lavanya, which there were plenty of during school. She'd try to strike during the first break, but any opportunity she could get was one she would use.

During the classes Will deliberately sat down next to Lavanya so she could keep an eye on her, hoping to find similarities between her and Ruby. Rather, hoping there were no similarities between the girl and her at all, because then Lavanya would cure her.

The girl seemed as normal as any other shy person was. During lessons she tried to avoid most contact with most people and when the teacher asked her something, she just pretended not to know, although she had the correct answers on her paper.

The only thing Will feared was that Lavanya knew something already, because she was giving spying glances back. Will pretended not to notice, but it was a little uncomfortable. If this was Ruby, she had already realised Will's plan from the start. But if so, did Ruby know what Will had up her sleeve too?

After the second class, Will switched books and mentally prepared. Lavanya was standing next to her as if nothing was going on. Will felt her heart starting to beat faster and she was getting nervous.

Lavanya took off to the canteen and Will followed suit. Irma stopped. "Earth to Will! Have you forgotten about us?"

Will looked surprised up. "Oh, sorry. It's… Mind if I sit alone this time?"

Irma was certainly confused. "I don't think so. We still have to think about what to do with that girl and Meridian."

Will shook her head. "Sorry, but next break maybe? Lots has happened and I really need a break from it."

"Sure, just blame yourself if Cornelia gets angry at you."

Will didn't looked around and walked to the canteen. _'And that's exactly why you can't know about this. You would just get upset with me.'_

Once in the canteen Will got some food from Yan Lin, or was it Mira Lin? Nerissa created the doppelgänger in order to get a full set of guardians under her control. She failed miserable at that. So now Yan Lin had a twin sister. Due to Mira Lin being an exact copy of Yan Lin it was hard to say who gave Will the food, only because she knew her a bit she could see that it was indeed Mira Lin.

They exchanged a short 'hi' and moved on. Mira with filling other plates and Will moved down the line.

Once out of the line she searched for Lavanya. The hall was big, but Lavanya was easily found as she always took place at an empty bench in the corner. This would give the two some privacy – if the noise of the others talking wasn't enough.

Will walked up to her and stopped next to Lavanya. _'This is it.'_ She thought anxious and gave herself a boost of confidence "May I sit next to you?"

Lavanya didn't seem to response at all. "Lavanya? May I sit-" Lavanya sneezed awkward and looked startled up. They looked in each other's eyes for what seemed quite some time. Will got nervouse and broke the eye contact by shaking her head. "Hey, mind if I sit next to you?"

Lavanya looked confused around her. "Uhm. Sure…" Will answered with a muttered 'thanks' with a small smile and went sitting on her right side. She put her plate down, stepped over the bench and sat down. They continued eating in a silence that Lavanya eventually broke.

"Shouldn't you eat with your friends?"

Will looked up in the direction of her friends. "Why _should_ I?"

Lavanya shrugged. "I dunno. Why sit next besides me?"

Will mirrored the shrug. "Do you want me to leave?"

Lavanya suddenly shook her head. "N-no, no. Not at all. It's just… You're the first student to talk to me in this place. T-that's all."

If this was Ruby, she sure was putting up a good act. Will was glancing over her body in search for any clues but again, there were none. Mostly she searched for residue red dye from Ruby's hair, but couldn't spot any. If she was Ruby, how could she dye her hair red and brown in moment's notice without any noticeable effects? It would take months to take out either colour from either hair colour, so how could she manage to do it within hours? Maybe it was a gift from being a vampire?

Will made ready for asking the question. "Could I ask you something… silly?"

Lavanya looked surprised up. "What kind of question?"

Will gulped some bile down. "Are you by any chance a vampire?"

Lavanya blinked with her eyes and raised an eyebrow. "What would make you think I'm a vampire?"

The moment that Lavanya near-frenched her played for her eyes and she had to blush a little. "When you last ran into me, you… frenched me. Rather, you licked the blood of my lips."

Lavanya was somewhat surprised and her cheeks began to turn a little red. "T-that? Uh, t-that… Well…"

"Nevermind about that, all I care about is if you're a vampire."

Will felt somewhat stupid after repeating the question. She was asking a stranger if she was a vampire. What impact would that make on her?

"Well, no… What makes you think I'm a vampire?" Lavanya asked. "I mean, I don't have fangs and I don't burn in sunlight, now do I?"

"Yeah…" Will said carefully. "But you did lick my lips...?"

Lavanya blushed even more. "S-sorry for that… I-I…" She glanced away and continued in a soft voice. "I just like blood…"

Will was surprised to hear that, but it contradicted; She wasn't a vampire, but she liked blood?

"But you just said you are not a vampire." Will asked confused.

Lavanya nodded. "I know, I know. It's only in small amounts though… Too much and it'll make you vomit." Lavanya glanced back at Will with some sort of grin. Will wasn't sure how to react on this. Lavanya wasn't a vampire, but she liked blood…

Now that the part of burning in the sun passed Will's mind, Ruby had never shown even the tiniest bit of skin to the sun before, in neither of their battles – although the last one was onesided – thus Lavanya and Ruby just couldn't be one and the same person. And although that was a relief, part of it posed a major problem for her: Lavanya wasn't a vampire.

Wasn't.

That meant that Ruby was really the only cure. Only if she sold herself to Ruby she'd live. The courage Will had sank into the ground and seeped in every direction, but nothing was left in Will. Ruby won.

Will's eyes strayed off in the distance as her head sank. Ruby won. Her live was forfeit now.

Will took her plate and stood up and left the table. There was no reason to sit beside her now. Her whole body trembled and her mind wasn't focused. She had bet everything on that Lavanya was a vampire, but she wasn't. The deal with the sun was it. Ruby was afraid of sunlight and Lavanya could bathe in it.

What now? Was she going to tell the girls about her failure? And what about her mom? Or would she sell her body? Maybe that was it. What could be so bad about selling it to some mad girl who came out of nowhere, destroying her life?

Will glanced to take a last look at Lavanya. She wanted to thank her in her mind, even if she couldn't be of any help, but Will was surprised to see Lavanya resting her chin on her crossed arms. Will could just spot the white of her eyes as Lavanya closed them. It was rather surprising to see her like that. Will had never seen her sad before, but this defiantly looked like she was sad.

Although Will felt a little pity for her, she turned away and walked to the table of her friends. She didn't really know Lavanya and still feared that she was Ruby, obviously.

Will sat down next to Taranee, opposite of Irma and Hay Lin. Cornelia sat on Taranee's other side.

"So, what did you talk to her about?" Irma asked. "To the new girl."

Will shrugged. "I was curious where she was coming from."

Irma asked her with a glance that yelled 'where?', but Will shrugged. "Somewhere."

Cornelia scraped her throat to get the attention. "So, about Meridian-"

Irma jumped up and looked at an imaginary watch on her wrist. "Oh, look at the time! Sorry Corny, no time for Meridian!"

"Hey, that's my line!" Will reacted - annoyed because of things going about Meridian again but mostly amused because Irma put the phrase right up Cornelia's face by adding 'Corny' to it.

Cornelia glared at Irma. "Stop calling me corny!"

"Sure, if you stop about Meridian this, Meridian that. It isn't the only thing in the world!" Irma said and sat back down. "We held of that army, who says she gets back?"

"But we can't let her go free either. She has to be brought to justice." Taranee said in Cornelia's defence. "What you, Hay Lin?"

Hay Lin gave it a thought. "I don't know… I mean, we don't even know for she if she's behind it all."

"And that's exactly why we should go after her. We'll put a stop to her as soon as we can, before things get out of hand like with Phobos and Nerissa!" Cornelia said. She had a point, but Will was fully on the tired side. One villain after the next – and more powerful and merciless.

"Then what would you want to do? Dig out that tunnel and see where it's headed?" Irma asked as sarcasm, but it gave Cornelia a good idea.

"Yes, that's what we're going to do." Cornelia said. "After school we'll head back and see where that tunnel leads us."

Irma slapped herself. "Dang, why do I always give her bad ideas?"

"Stop speaking without thinking." Cornelia said. "That might help?"

So it was settled. They'd go to Meridian again. Though Irma's idea might work in her advantage and disadvantage. If they could track Ruby down before the 72 time passed, she could actually force Ruby to cure her. However, if she was locked away it would mean her death.

't Was better than what she had now: nothing. Without Lavanya's ability to cure her, she had no options. So going along with the girls would have to suffice, but she had to act quickly and neither could the girls know about it.

…

Will was packing her books with Lavanya besides her and the other girls waiting for her and the Heart to go to Meridian.

She noticed Lavanya was glancing secretly at her and Will wondered why. Was it about first recces? "Are you all right?" Will asked a little worried.

Lavanya nodded and looked at her with a wry smile. "Yeah, I'm fine."

There was some lie in it because she had been sad for the rest of recces, but once she had entered class she had put up a smile. "Sorry about earlier. I had a lot on my mind…"

Lavanya shook her head a little. "Never mind. I shouldn't have been rambling like that. I mean, someone drinking blood? Come on! That's ridiculous, right?"

Will smiled a little. "Yeah, but still. I'm the one who asked if you were a vampire."

Lavanya tilted her head a little. "Do you believe in them? I mean in vampires."

Will's hand went instinctively towards the bite-mark Ruby left her. "After yesterday night… I kinda do."

"Wait, you were bitten?" Lavanya asked surprised. Will was surprised she knew – another reason why she could be Ruby – but before Will could say anything, Lavanya said something rather odd. "Whomever it was, he was lucky."

"Lucky? Being infected with vampirism isn't lucky at all!" Will reacted somewhat angry, forgetting that should have been a secret.

"He is; your blood is delisious!"

Will looked confused at her and her head tilted a little. "W…wath?" Did she just meant that Ruby was lucky to bite her because her blood seemed to taste good?

Lavanya spun on her heels and hid her head in the locker like an ostray did in the sand. "I said nothing!"

"but-"

"I don't exist!"

Will felt a little smile pry on her lips. She was really odd. But in a somewhat funny way. Will poked Lavanya several times in her side. "I'm pretty sure you exist." Was her statement.

"No I don't!"

"Yes, you do!"

"No. I. Do. Not."

Will rolled amused with her eyes. Lavanya was a nice change from the girls, she had to admit that. For once, Meridian or the vampire ordeal didn't cross her mind.

She felt a bit naughty. "Well, then you don't mind me tickling you?"

"O-oh no!" Lavanya reacted, certainly not pleased with the idea. "Don't you dare tickle me!"

"You don't exist, so why would you care?" Will asked and tickled Lavanya slightly under her right armpit. Lavanya's body tensed and she seemed the suppress a laugh.

"You're no fair!"

"And you don't exist." Will said as she started to tickle Lavanya under both arms. Lavanya begged Will to stop but the words were inaudible under the laughs. "I won't stop until you admit that you exist."

"No fair!" Lavanya giggled as she pulled her head out of her locker and folded double and hugged her stomach as she laughed aloud. Will started to tickle her on more places than just her armpits and she managed to get Lavanya to the ground. Her laugher was infectious and Will had to laugh a little too. "Come on, admit it!"

Lavanya lay on the ground under Will and Will took place over her. "Come on! Admit it!" Will tickled Lavanya's belly and noticed it was a paticular sensitive spot for her and made her luagh out loud, though Will heard her moan too. A rather odd moad, not one of pain at least.

Lavanya held firm for a while, but Will's tickling was getting the better of her. "Okay, okay! I exist! I admit I exist!" She tried to say during the laughs.

Will grinned and slowly stopped. "That's wasn't so hard, now was it?"

"At least it made you stop. Awh! My stomach hurts!" Lavanya moaned.

Will sat back and took a few deep breaths to calm herself down too.

"So, how is it to have a girl between your legs?" Lavanya suddenly asked. Will looked confused at her and didn't get her. Although it was true that she was somewhat sitting on Lavanya's inner thighs. It took a few moments for Will to understand what she really meant. Will felt her body heat up in an instant and instinctively she crawled backwards and bumped with her back against the lockers. "Lavanya!"

Lavanya put her arms beside her, lifted her body up, pulled her legs under her body and landed on her knees and hands facing Will. "Now's time for payback!"

Will yelped; "Oh darn!"

Lavanya's revenge was like none Will had ever felt before and within moments she laughed as hard as Lavanya had just a moment ago. Her belly started to ache soon after and tears welled up in her eyes but she pulled herself together and tickled Lavanya back on any sensitive point she could get her hands on. Both girls started to climb around each other in order to tickle and not get tickled. Lavanya was a strong opponent and Will felt getting tired quickily. Her opponent was getting tired too. Will ended on top of Lavanya in the end.

Will's arms weren't strong enough to hold her body up any moreand she collapsed on Lavanya's body. She could just avoid their heads colliding, but that was all she could do with the energy left.

"What a nice soft bed…" Will muttered and nuzzled her head on Lavanya's shoulder and pretended to sleep.

"So, you got laid?" Lavanya asked teasing.

"Yeah." Will dully replied. It took a moment before her brains realised her mistaken answer. It gave Will a boost of energy to lift herself up on her knees and arms, again her became warm. "I didn't mean that!"

"Eh! First answer counts!"

"No fair!" Will answered insulted. "The boys kidding around like that, fine. But not you too!"

Lavanya tried to sit up and Will climbed backwards off her. "What's the matter? Didn't like it?"

Will rubbed her right upper arm with her left hand. Somehow the joke gave her a strange feeling in her stomach. A live saver was that she remembered she had to go to the girls.

"The girls!" Will yelped. She launched herself to her feet, finished preparing her stuff and as she swung her bag on her back she ran off. "See you tomorrow!" Will called after Lavanya, not waiting for a response but hearing an 'aye' in the distance.

The girls were waiting – impatiently - for her outside. Even Irma, because the faster they left, the faster they would come back. The group walked towards a section out of vision of any unwanted spectators. Once they were clear, Will made a fold towards Meridian and after they had all stepped through it and the fold collapsed they turned into their guardian form.

As they flew over town Will noticed how the Meridians were starting to rebuild. Although there was lots of damage to repair, they had made a start. If they could take Ruby down this day she wouldn't need to worry about the town being threatened again.

They landed near the hole that the gaint machine had left behind after drilling itself a way through the ground. Cornelia was the one to lead the way this time. She used her powers over earth to move the builders and support the ceiling of the tunnel that she was forming. When they entered, Taranee supplied each of the girl with a fireball as lighting, illuminating the tunnel enough for them so they wouldn't stumble over any rocks.

The tunnel became pretty steep and as Cornelia said; the cave-in was pretty bad that even she couldn't reach the end of the rubble. But after a while she could sense the end of the cave-in and she hurried to dig her way towards it and she started yelling "No-no-no!"

"What's wrong?" Taranee asked.

Cornelia's answer was worrisome; "It dug all the way to the Infinite City!"

The girls gasped and as Cornelia removed a boulder, it gave a look into the space under them. The boulders had plugged the hole from above and formed a large mountain.

The girls flew into the space and tried to look for any clue of where the machine had gone, but there were none! As Will looked around better she realised why; the ceiling was high and the pillars spaced enough for the machine to pass through unharmed! It almost looked as if this place was built to support this machine. But that meant that Ruby was the one who had built it many, many decades ago. She wasn't a teen, she was bitten at that age, that's why she looked like that and lived long enough to have built this place. But why attack now? What was in it for her now that wasn't there those many years ago?

Not only that; the Infinite City gave Ruby instant access to the prison where Cedric, Phobos and their minions were locked up!

Hay Lin was the fastest of them, she'd be the best choice. "Hay Lin, could you hurry as fast as you can to the prison and look if the place is still intact?"

Cornelia reacted surprised. "Why? Elyon told us there were no prison breaks."

Will nodded. "Yeah, not yet. Look at the ceiling and the pillars. They provide just enough room to move that machine! Besides, Ruby is here too! She could go anywhere!"

Hay Lin understood what Will meant and flew off towards the prison as fast as she could.

"I'll warn Elyon! That thing can dig up anywhere anytime! She has to know!" Cornelia said and she instantly flew up the tunnel to the surface and left Irma, Taranee and Will behind.

Will looked around. "With Hay Lin going that way and Cornelia up, we should split too to cover as much ground as we can! Irma, go that way and Taranee, you should go that way. I'll check this way. If you see anything suspicious, call back immediately!" Will ordered as she pointed around. Irma and Taranee nodded and each flew of in the direction Will pointed them to. Taranee lighted some fireballs up to scout the area as she flew away.

'_Darn it, Ruby! What are you up to?'_ Will scolded and flew off in her own direction. _'I hope she hasn't found the prison yet.'_ Will murmured. She heard a voice suddenly coming from behind, an eerie familiar voice.

Ruby

"I really must thank you for making it so much easier to take your friends down."

Will spun around to see Ruby clinging to a pillar at the same height as Will was hovering. Apparently she couldn't fly. "Try. They are much stronger than you think!"

"Did you know snipers could take out entire armies – nations - with just a single bullet?"

Will was somewhat confused by the sudden information that didn't have to do anything with the situation.

"An officer, a general, a king, a president… Take them out and the others will fall."

Will gulped as she realized what Ruby was talking about. The other girls might be a match for her, but she wasn't. She had lost twice already. If she would be taken out, Ruby could do anything to the Heart and the girls would become sitting ducks!

But then, Will had lost on unfair grounds. First time was not knowing her enemy and powers and the second time was being paralyzed by that globe. This time she might be a match. No. She would be a match and she would win.

"Well, you have to hit me first!" Will said encouraged and she charged a bolt up and fired it at Ruby. The girl made a powerfull leap and near-flew towards another pillar. Even though the distance was pretty long, her arc was almost flat and Will nearly lost track of her.

"The prey is defending itself. How cute!" Ruby remarked and jumped again as Will fired another bolt.

"This time, you are the prey, Ruby!" Will said. "You'll cure me and you'll leave Meridian and the rest alone!"

Ruby laughed. "It's good to hear your enthusiasm! But I already made you an offer: your blood."

"Over. My. Death. Body!" Will yelled and she flew towards Ruby with her first ready to hit her. Ruby jumped aside and Will could just bail out and scratched the pillar.

"Sorry, Will. Can't let you die." Ruby said as she made strange gestures with her hands again and fired a black lightning bolt towards Will. Will easily dodged and fired her own.

"Why? Why am I so important to you that I should live?" Will questioned enraged. Ruby's zigzagging jumping between pillars was extremely annoying. Will followed her as Ruby jumped again, but the body slammed into the pillar in a weird way and she fell down. Will followed the body but as she flew after it she saw it was only her cloak!

A decoy!

Ruby hit Will on her back and Will spiraled uncontrollably to the ground and slammed into it. Moaning in pain she slowly looked up as Ruby walked up to her. Will was surprised to see that she had cut her braid off and was now having a loose bob. Ruby revealed some ropes and tried to tie Will up. Will felt hatred rise in her again for being defeated by something so stupid. She waited her chance and tried to kick Ruby in her stomach. Even though the kick connected, Ruby didn't seem to feel anything. "Nice try, but you really should know better."

The kick actually hurt Will more than Ruby would ever feel and she screamed so loud her voice broke. All the pain combined made Will cry. "Why are you doing all this?" she asked sobbing.

Ruby knelt besides Will and took the Heart from her and then bowed so that their faces were close together. She kissed Will on the lips. It was short, but it felt almost passionate. When she pulled back from the kiss Will instinctively licked her own lips and as she gulped she felt numbness spread throughout her body.

"Live is full of surprises, isn't it?"

…

**A/N: I dunno if this chapter was long enough, but I thought this would be a nice spot to stop. ^^**

**What will happen to Will now she learned Lavanya isn't a vampire and now with Ruby having her trapped (again)...  
**


	5. Love Through Hate

**A/N: It seems I can't pull of any big chapters lately. Meh.  
I hope you like the chapter!**

**...**

_Chapter 5 'Love Trough Hate'_

Ruby walked away some time ago with the Heart to go after the other girls. Will had to get out of these ropes and quick! She had no idea what Ruby was planning to do, but it wouldn't be good at all!

'_Dang it, Ruby! You probably had ages to learn how to lay knots!'_ Will thought annoyed. There was no way these ropes would give way to her body. They were just too tight.

Will struggled again against the ropes but they didn't budge. Will sighed and rested her head on the cold floor. _'How am I supposed to get out of here and warn the girls…'_ Will sighed again for failing to think of telepathy. But as she tried to use it, she felt as if there was a barrier around her head. So telepathy was immediatly dismissed.

Will rolled to her back in the hopes it would lay better. _ 'And here we are _again._ In the middle of _nowhere,_ tied up, unable to do _anything_ while my friends are in danger…'_

As she looked up past the enormous pillar, she spotted something shiny. When looking better she saw nothing, but then it appeared again. It looked like some sort of shiny snake that slithered down the pillar. Will worried if it was something Ruby left for her or if it was the local fauna, hoping it wasn't threatening either way.

As it came closer, Will realised it wasn't a real snake, but one made out of metal. And instead of actually slithering over the surface, it hung past a wire that ran to the ceiling and was crawling over the surface with dozens of tiny legs. So it was one of Ruby's, but what was it going to do?

When it reached the ground, the cable fell down to the ground and was pulled back into the body of the snake with a sharp zipping noise. When the cable was retracted, revealing there was a grapling hook on the end, the snake crawled towards Will. Will tried to move away from it as best she could, wringing and moving her body in awkward bents, but was outrun by the snake in a moment.

Will yelled as it tried to bite her, revealing two long sharp fangs that would tear her skin to pieces. But although the snake had attacked and was biting again she didn't felt any pain. Actually, the ropes started to loosen up!

Will sat confused up. _'Did it just help me? But then it can't be one of Ruby's. But if it isn't hers, whose is it then?'_

The snake rose up so it was around eye height of Will. It looked at her as if something was wrong or so. It lay down long and the skin started to fold open from the middle of the back, only the head didn't.

Will was surprised to see what the snake had brought her; it looked like a sniper rifle of some sorts with some packs of bullets.

The snake didn't do anything, so Will supposed the package was for her. She took the rifle out together with the bullets. Then the snake folded back together and slithered/crawled away as if nothing happened.

'_Who sent this and is it really meant for me?'_

Will inspected the weapon carefully from different angles. She had never seen this type of rifle before. In fact, it matched with the machine-style from Ruby, just much more professionally crafted, rather than junk put together. She decided to leave it here and come back later for it. She had no way of bringing it to the girls and it could be trapped.

Will flew up and rushed in Taranee's direction since she was the one with the strongest telepathy to warn the other girls. She repeatedly called out for Taranee but the wall around her mind was still up. She only knew when she came closer to Taranee when she smelled something burned. _'Ruby already got to her!'_ Will flew even faster. The scorch marks indicated a fierce battle. Will followed the trail of black stuff and discovered Taranee lying against a pillar. She seemed very exhausted. The moment she saw Will she hurled a fireball towards her!

Will could just move aside and let the fireball hit a pillar behind her. It could have been a mistake from Taranee, but something told Will different. Taranee's eyes had a killing intent in them and were focused on Will.

"Come to finish the job?" Taranee asked. She started to grin and slowly stood up. She was clearly hurt. "I'm so very sorry to disappoint you, _Ruby_, but I'm not going to lie down so easily!" Taranee held her hands up and fired two fireballs at Will. The only way to dodge them was to get airborne.

"Taranee, what's wrong with you? I'm Will!"

Taranee laughed. "Come on, did you really think you could hide your face behind a mask and think I wouldn't see through it? _You_ attacked Meridian. _Ruby_ was just a scapegoat imagination from you so we wouldn't blame you. But it didn't work from day one."

"Wait, you think _I _am Ruby? You can't be serious Why would I attack Meridian? Why would I kill those people! I fought hard to protect them, so why would I-"

"Shut up, Will! You can't _persuade_ me into believing it wasn't you. Give up already!" Taranee said and she fired a series of fireballs at Will. "Because I won't!

'_I can't talk her out like this! Besides, she's way too strong for me to take me on.'_ Will thought. _'So this is what Ruby planned. That's why she cut her braid off and stole the Heart. To imitate me and make the girls think I attacked Meridian. She played it good, real good. The girls never saw us fight before and I never told anything to them.'_

Will flew away as fast as she could. _'I hope I can convince the others of my innocence, otherwise this might end really nasty!'_

The next one she would try was Irma. She was the closest by. But Ruby had been here too; everything was wet and Irma lay half unconscious on the ground in a puddle of water. Will landed next to her and kneeled to help her up. Irma suddenly climbed to her hands and knees. "Trapped like a rat. Really, Will. I thought you were smarter than that after ambushing me."

Will startled as water gathered under her and streamed up to form a powerful jet of water that launched her upwards in the air. The water made her wings wet so she couldn't fly and when the jet disappeared she fell from the sky. Laying hurt on the ground, Irma stood up and walked towards her. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. You're worse than Nerissa, you know."

"It wasn't me! It. Wasn't. Me!" Will yelled hopeless. Irma had the same hate as Taranee had. It was no use then. And by now, Ruby must have caught up with Hay Lin. Her only hope would be Cornelia and Elyon, _if_ Ruby hadn't attacked them yet.

Irma looked startled at Will. Will smiled a little because it seemed Irma believed it. But rather than a startle of believing Will, it was a startle of disbelieve. "You attacked Taranee and Hay Lin too? Damn you, Will!" Taranee must have told her through telepathy about herself and learned the same way that Hay Lin was attacked.

'_I've got to get out of here! I guess they beat Ruby up enough to make her retreat every time. But even in their weakened state I'm no match for them! Attacking them will only prove their point.'_

Will ran away as fast as she could and flapped with her wings until they were dry. Once they were dry she put all her strength in them to get to the tunnel to the surface in the hope Ruby wasn't there yet. What worried Will was that Ruby was extremely quick! She had taken Taranee, Irma and Hay Lin out in the time she needed to get to Taranee and that wasn't ten minutes at max.

On her way back to the tunnel she was found by Taranee. It took her a great effort to dodge all the firepower send after her, but by mainly evading her and having the advantage of not being exhausted, she got ahead of Taranee and reached the tunnel. She flew up through the tight hole all the way to the surface. The light blinded her for a moment and she blocked the bright light out with her left arm. More on instincts rather than observation, she flew towards the Royal Palace in the hopes of beating Ruby to it.

She landed through one of the balconies and ran through the hall. There were no indications of Elyon being attacked – in which case the whole palace would be in an uproar – and believed that she had a little bit of luck left. But that soon disappeared as she saw Ruby run towards her from the other side of the hallway. She was quick. She stomped Will in her stomach with her right fist and was slammed into the ground.

"It's been fun, but it's time to leave. Here, yer catalyst back!"

The deafening pain barely allowed her to hear what Ruby said, but she was clearly excited about all this. If the air wasn't slammed out of her lungs, she would retaliate, but she couldn't. Ruby was gone before she knew it. Once she was gone, the pain disappeared from her body and Will saw the Heart lay on her chest. _'W-what the heck just happened? She took me out in a moment's notice… And why is she giving me the Heart back?'_

Will slowly got up to her feet. She looked up to see a group of guards stand in front of her, their weapons pointed at Will. Caleb was amongst them. "Will, how could you steep so low like that and attack Elyon?"

"NO!"

The scream was so loud most of the guards trembled, even Caleb.

Will went nearly blank. She hated Ruby with every bit of existence she was. Ruby had put everyone against her with no effort at all. Why? What was her goal? She didn't seem to want the Heart, nor her.

Tears streamed down Will's eyes. After everything there was no way anyone would believe her anymore, Ruby probably made sure of that.

Will fell on her knees and started crying, muttering to herself that it wasn't her. For she knew it, the gaurds had overpowered her. They took the Heart from her and captured her.

"Bring her to the pit. Keep a close eye on her and always guard her with a squad. I'll inform Elyon and Cornelia." She heard Caleb order around.

**…**

Will knew this part of the dungeon all too well. When she just learned when she was a guardian she had been held here too. At the time she didn't had the heart and the girls were new to her, but they still helped her out of here. Now she didn't have the heart either, but the girls weren't going to save her. They locked her up because she was a threat to them – at least, that is what Ruby made them think – and weren't in for reasoning with her. Ruby framed her big time.

To make sure she wouldn't go anywhere they had dropped her in the pit – basically a very deep hole in the ground where she couldn't climb out – and chained her to the wall with very little space to move. She could just sit on her knees as the chains pulled on her wrists. At least they allowed her to keep her dignity, but she had turned back in her human form – meaning she was much weaker – and as finish Elyon had enchanted the pit so Will couldn't fold, teletransport or anything out of the pit. And if she managed to get out, there was a large group of soldiers waiting at the top to sound for alarm and take her down. They really hated her, didn't they?

She wondered when they got word out to Matt, Napoleon, Huggles and the Oracle. Whom of them would believe her story against that of Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, Hay Lin, Elyon, Caleb and all the others. What would they think of her?

What would her mother think of her when she wouldn't come back because she was sealed away in some mountain to rot, just like Nerissa.

No, she would not end like her. She would somehow escape and/or proof her innocence! There had to be a way to proof her innocence! But how? Was there a way to proof her innocence? Was there a way to escape? Will looked up and she lost hope. No, there was no way to escape nor proof of her innocence.

Will softly sobbed to herself, fearing the future in all her right.

A few hours later the cage which brought her down – and had turned in some kind of elevator, rather than a cruel way of dropping people it had a door built in the bars – and Will could see Caleb and Matt had come to pick her up. Matt was in his Shagon form and Caleb was combat ready too.

"I would have wanted to have a private chat with you, but it seems I could never trust you to begin with." Matt said, although his face was hidden, Will knew he was upset by his tone. She realised he also meant the moment where Lavanya kissed her. He was rubbing it in, wasn't he?

Caleb walked forward and kneeled next to her to unlock her chains from the walls – keeping her hands chained together – Matt was keeping watch, ready to blast her the moment she made a wrong move.

Once 'freed', Caleb guided Will into the elevator and both he and Matt stepped in. The steel and wooden cage trembled a little and was slowly pulled up.

"I don't know why you attacked Meridian, but I do know you couldn't have picked a worse time to do it." Caleb said to her. "You won't have to regret your mistakes for too long."

She wondered what he meant by that, but the two remained silent.

Once back on the dungeon floors they stepped out and a squad of guards surrounded them. "They have orders to take you down if you try to escape. So don't try anything stupid." That was quite a drastic measure against her. Something bad was about to happen, she could feel it.

Matt really seemed to feel upset about this. Was it about what Caleb said?

She couldn't blame him really. His girlfriend turned in the second Nerissa, of course he would be upset. Oh, and don't forget she made out with another girl in front of him. As if she took his heart, scattered it, brought it back with quintessence and then scattered it again just for fun.

Will was lead towards the throne room – though she was allowed to visit the bathroom first. It was pretty awkward with all the guards around and her hands chained, but it was better than…

Once she walked into the throne room she was quite surprised about the large amount of people in there. Most of them were townsfolk on the sides among the window, slightly backing off and glaring at her as she passed by. In front of them was a line of soldiers, either to keep them back or to protect them from her. More towards the front were the wealthier people of the town and the higher ranked soldiers, including Julian, Rathor and the lot.

Elyon sat as per usual on the throne with Irma, Taranee, Cornelia and Hay Lin sitting or standing around her. All five seemed pretty beaten up and glared the same way at Will. She spotted the slightest hint of pity from Hay Lin, but even she was glaring.

The light coming through the room made it a little better for her to bear the glares. She was a little amused to see the shadow of the giant ring around the castle, build by Phobos to invade Kandrakar.

"Burn that witch!" someone yelled from the crowd. The yell was followed by several others and chaos started to erupt. The guards tried to calm the people down and once Will reached the steps before the throne, the silence in the room was almost absolute, apart from the whispers.

'_I suppose this is to be some kind of court. I hope they will let me talk and convince them this was all _not_ my fault. I don't want to end op as a hag like Nerissa!'_ Will plead. It was a little strange how quickly they managed to arrange this whole event in so little time. Maybe she was locked up for longer than she could remember.

What worried Will was that Nerissa and Phobos neither had a 'fair trail'. How true was that? Their actions were obvious and their sentence just. Just like hers. With enough bad luck, she would be sent straight for jail and disappear from the surface of the earth.

Will remembered Ruby's offer on her blood. If she would yell for the guards at that moment she could let the guards spot Ruby, they would see her and Ruby at the same moment and notice the similarities between the two. Even if Ruby got away from that moment, her name would be cleared!

'_If I just work along with them, Ruby will walk right into my trap!'_ Will thought, bearing her teeth as she grinned a little. She would take her punishment without resistance and the girls would see the truth.

Will looked surprised up at that moment as she heard Elyon talk. Elyon probably started and Will lost herself in thoughts on that moment. It seemed to be the end of the list of crimes Ruby committed.

"I, Queen of Meridian, have listened to everyone and judged carefully on how to proceed." Elyon spoke with a strong voice that bellowed through the hall. "I can't allow myself to make the same mistake as was made with Nerissa by locking her up."

Will's heart skipped a beat. Did Elyon just mean that she would let her go free? Just like that? Would she bet on their friendship and know that it couldn't be her.

"Since we cannot risk you doing any more harm than you have already done,"

Her eyes widened.

"I sentence you to death by burning on the stake at the dawn of the day after tomorrow."

Will blinked a few times in disbelieve. She heard that wrong, right? Elyon would say 'just kidding' and set her free. The girls would believe them, Ruby would be but behind bars and she'd live happily ever after with Matt, get married, kids… Elyon didn't just sentence her to death, did she? She couldn't. Why would she do that to her friend?

Her eyes traced lost to the ground, glancing at nothing. "E-executed? Isn't that a …little farfetched?" She muttered. Despite the softness of her voice, Elyon could still hear her.

"I'm sorry, but I can't risk anything anymore."

"You just execute me so you don't have to worry about me…" Will muttered in shock and awe. _'Ruby had me in her hand from the start. There was no escaping her from the beginning.'_

Every time Ruby did something, Will tried to react with her own plans, only to discover that Ruby was many steps in front of her.

Ruby won, Ruby won.

It was a mantra that played in her head like the cheers in a football stadium, to rub in her fail of a lifetime.

Ruby won, Ruby won.

Was it possible to win against someone who controlled your life? No, Will just learned that the hard way. But there was something that even the Oracle couldn't control; the death.

It was a mad plan that her mind made up under hormones, not those for saving her live, but for saving that of her friends. It was obvious her own live was forfeit. Her friends wouldn't believe her in a eon. But they would remember her and if Ruby ever dared to show her face ever again, that memory would save the girls. They would realise she was framed and that Ruby was all behind it. They would avenge her death and Ruby would be beaten. Beaten by a memory Ruby will most likely forget, because why would she remember 'Will' the failure.

The girls would remember her like they had to remember the Second World War. A stain on their live. But just _that_ memory would backfire on them _and Ruby._

Vengeance from beyond the grave. That idea appealed to Will.

She didn't hold any grudge against the girls. Everyone would go mad after what they had been through, Will was just the target of all that madness. Nevertheless, she would bare it. The truth would set her free, all of them. Her memory would set them free. All she needed was to make sure she was a sticky memory. And how was she going to achieve that other than doing something even the death didn't dare to try?

"So, I'll be burned at the stakes? You really think _that_ will stop me?" Will questioned, partly laughing to mock Elyon's sentence. "You don't know me for the slightest bit. You have no idea what I am capable of! But don't worry, before you die you will realise what I mean."

Playing the villain, that was what she was going to do. Just make things worse than they already were. That's how you stick to someone. You're sure to remember your friend who killed thousands of people as if they were cattle and seemed unmoved by a death sentence of a friend.

Will loved to play the role because it was meant to save her friends. The more she was the villain, the more the girls would remember her.

'_Please Lord. Just let them remember them my name.'_

**...**

**A/N: 0.0**

**Did Elyon just sentence Will to death by burning at the stake, all because Ruby framed Will? What sick kind of persons are they! And did Will just give up or something? WHAT? Is she sick too? (Or at least, I am, because I came up with this ^^')**

**"Remember me"**

**Those who know the Word of Dragontitan properly know that that little piece of text means a LOT. Seriously, A. LOT!  
Now that you know something epic is going to happen (*****Chough*****Will beating the crap out of Ruby *Chough*), lets see what next chapter will bring.**

**Will Will get out before the sentence, or will she burn? And if she's going to die, what will happen to Ruby, Lavanya, Susan and everyone else?  
And from whom was that snake-creature?  
**

**Things are about to get exciting!  
I hope...**

**Thanks for reading and please review! (Although I know most of you won't. :'C )**

**btw; the title means Will's plan. She wants the girls to hate her to remember her, so that if Ruby ever attacks again her name will be cleared. She shows her love through their hate for her.**


	6. Death Of The Devil

**A/N: This chapter is a little darker than usual. Dunno where it came from. I was too shabby at the moment? Who knows...****  
Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy this short but dark chapter!**

**...**

_Chapter 6 'Death Of The Devil'_

And here she was again, chained to the wall of the pit like Grimnir was the World's End. The main difference was that she wasn't possessed by a powerful demon from the corpreal realm trying to destroy the world. She was _framed_ for destroying the world. Kinda.

Her life was forfeit. She would either die because of the vampirism – she used the Heart, thinking she could handle this before it would escalate – or she will be burned at the stakes.

Ruby would probably come soon to ask for some blood. She could not tell time in this place so Ruby could come here any moment. She wasn't planning on using that moment. Ruby had most likely something up her sleeve to use against her.

No. Her death would be _her_ way of payback.

Will let a smile pry on her lips. She sat on her knees with her head hanging, hanging on the chains that held her arms up. She looked rubbish and she knew that. But she didn't care. Why would she care?

She heard soft steps in the sand in front of her and looked up. Masked and hooded like always, Ruby stood in front of her. She already guessed that Ruby would appear moments before the incubation period expired.

"It's time, isn't it?" Will asked softly.

Ruby nodded. "Why else would I be here?"

Will glanced down and shrugged her shoulders slightly. "I dunno. To make my life more miserable? It can't be worse than getting executed by my friends!"

"I heard…"

Ruby sat down on her knees. "You attacked your friends and since they can't afford a second Nerissa incident, they rather kill you than let you live."

"But _we_ know better, don't _we_." Will said, laying emphasis so Ruby knew she knew.

Ruby lay down on Will's lap. She played a little with her finger over the skin of Will's thigh. "We _don't_."

"What do you have on your sleeves? I'm going to die, so why not tell me? At least explain me why." Will pleaded. "A death girl's wish."

Ruby sat up and started to unroll her sleeves. _'Maybe she took it a little _too_ literal.'_ Will thought, but was surprised to see her wrists were completely covered in scars.

"My skin heals quicker than human skin, so they'll disappear in a few hours…"

A few hours? Where did she get all those cuts from then, and why?

"I was born with a curse _you_ call vampirism. Mom died giving birth to me and dad always blamed it on me. Can't give him wrong." She muttered. "After he tried to beat me to death again, my blood thirst took over and I killed him. You should have seen him bleed all over the place. Bloody mess that was."

Will almost felt pity for her.

Almost.

How could Ruby's past allow her to kill others? What kind of sadist was she? It wouldn't surprise Will if this was all made up either. "I didn't ask for your past. Why are you hurting me?" She asked.

Will heard a soft sob come from Ruby, followed by an odd laugh. "Why'd you care anyway?" she muttered utmost soft. "You don't know what's it like to be hurt for real."

It was almost insulting. "Not? I'm about to be executed by my own friends because of you! Don't cry on me for being an ass while _you_'re the one who started this mess!" Will yelled.

"At least you have friends! All I have is a meaningless live to cling on! Nobody would care if I'd die!" Ruby yelled back.

A strange feeling jumped through Will. If Ruby would die in front of her… If she could make Ruby suicide, that would clear her name in an instant! Will didn't trust Ruby's emotions, but it was sure worth the gamble, wasn't it?

"I'd be more than happy if you died. Thousands of peoples would be grateful for the one who killed you." Will said to her with a smirk. "After all, you killed their friends and families, destroyed their homes. Look at me. I get all guilt and they would even kill their own friend for revenge!"

Ruby held her sobs in. "I really hoped you were different, Will. If I just hadn't messed up. If I just turned my back on that bargain. I knew it would bring trouble!"

Ruby pulled her hood back and untied the ribbon on the back of her head and let the mask slide down her face. Will wasn't surprise at all to see the brown hair and the brown eyes. Lavanya. So they really were one and the same.

But instead of clearing things up for her, it all became just more confusing. Who was Lavanya/Ruby really? What was it to be a vampire? They didn't burn in sunlight, as Will thought, because Lavanya walked in daylight.

Ruby sat up and kissed Will in the neck. She bit Will in the neck again and suckled slightly on the wound. Similar to last time.

Unlike last time Will didn't lose the feeling in her neck and felt the bite more intensely. In fact, it felt more like a kiss than a bite. She could even hear Ruby moan a little.

She took a little longer than last time and let go. She had something strange in her eyes. They had turned ember red with vertical slits in them and were filled with a strange kind of darkness. The same darkness Will had seen her have some days ago.

"I'm sorry for everything." Ruby muttered softly. Will looked surprised up at her. Ruby took her dagger from her belt and laid a sharp edge in the length against her wrist. Most of her scars were along the width, but this one was sure to cause a lot more damage than those.

With a drip of red blood rolling down her lips, she smiled and braced herself. The blade cut deep in her skin and with a strong slash her whole wrist was open. The red blood gushed out with regular intervals and spilled on the floor like crazy. Ruby tried to sit up but her head slowly sank down, her head jerking a little up as her chin hit her chest. She tried to keep herself awake but it was clear she was going to pass out very soon. Her body slowly tilted sideways and landed on her side in the sand mixed with blood.

Will's eyes were fixated on the wound. She couldn't glance away as the blood was stopped being pumped out. Ruby was death.

'_I did it…'_ Will thought to herself. _'I… killed… Ruby.'_

To her surprise the words felt hollow. Her mind felt hollow. It was over. But she didn't felt relieved at all. Why? The one responsible for her misery and murderer of lots of people of Meridian was death. The guards would soon come to fetch her for the execution and find Ruby. Her name would be cleared. Things would go back to normal.

But if this was supposed to be a happy moment, why did she feel so sad? Ruby was death and Meridian was save again. Didn't the life of one outweigh the life of the many?

Will knew that friends, family and loved ones would make exceptions on that rule for a person in the wrong situation, but Ruby wasn't family, a friend or a lover. Why did she feel so sad then?

Tears ran down her cheeks and fell down from her chin.

It was because Ruby never really lied about her past. Why else would she apologize in the end and suicide? Ruby cared about her after all. She was a friend. Or rather, her alter ego Lavanya was.

She cried because she killed her own friend.

She heard the chains and the weights move to lower the elevator above her. They were coming for her. Once they would see Ruby the execution would be cancelled off. But to Will that mattered little anymore. She felt broken and betrayed. She killed her friend and her friends tried to kill her. She could not, _would not,_ forgive herself. But in the end she couldn't forgive the girls really either. They mistrusted her so much they would not even listen to her story, like she didn't listen to Ruby's story.

The elevator made contact with the ground. The door swung open and a man in a heavy copper armour stepped out. "What the heck happened here?"

Will didn't look up. "Nothing, nothing at all." She lied on purpose. That way Ruby would die a clean name.

The man stepped out of the elevator and walked up to her. "It is ti-"

"Just get over with it." Will snapped at him. The man startled a little and took the chains. Will felt the chains loosen without hearing the lock being opened. The man picked Lavanya's body up and led Will into the elevator.

**...**

The burning was public and many people had come. They all wanted to see what was going on. A confirmed rumour has it that the leader of the new generation Guardians had turned against Kandrakar and attacked Meridian. Most of the vilagers knew what happened to and after Nerissa. She was locked up and got out to plan her attack on Kandrakar in the dark.

Will's resemblance to Nerissa and the fear to repeat history like that moved most people to call for her death, despite that Will was still in her teens.

The ex-gaurdian leader was led towards a podium that was meant for speeches and theatre. On top of it stood a pole and a small pile of hay and wooden branches.

To burn was her sentence.

She looked awful and her head hung low, bangs of her red hair covering her eyes. Some people felt a little pity for her, but most of them didn't. It was her own fault after all. She shouldn't have thought herself better than the rest and all.

The guards that brought her lead her to the stake tied her hands above her head to the pole. After finishing tying her up they stepped away but stayed to guard the place. It was not weird to think that she didn't operate alone or that she had some weird trick on her sleeve.

The remaining guardians and the queen were present as well as the Regents of Earth to make sure everything went as it should. Even though they held firm faces, it was clear they were upset. Who wouldn't be in a situation like this?

The question was; who was going to light the stake? Would it be a random chosen guard or would one of her friends do it? There seemed to be a little discussion among the group of friends that almost escalated. When the queen stepped in to put an end to the internal fight, it was the boyfriend of the leader who took the task.

The fire guardian lighted the torch for him and he walked to the podium. The leader and he seemed to exchange a few words and he kissed her short before throwing the torch in the hay.

It was sad to see two lovers separated like that. That's probably why he wanted to do it.

There was still some confusion among the people. Why did the guardian leader do this? What was in it for her to risk her life for? This was something they wouldn't know.

The flames of the torch jumped to the hay and in turn lighted the branches. The fire moved to her feet and the ex-guardian leader started to scream. The flames crawled fast up along her clothes. In moments the flames engulfed her whole body and the cracking of the fire and the popping of the gasses in the wood silenced her screams.

It was horrible to see the girl burn and most people looked away.

After some long minutes the fire died down and the body was no more than a pile of smoking ashes and embers. The execution was over.

**...**

**A/N: 0.0  
I don't think I'm liking that...  
What the heck is going on! *Runs circles like a scared moron*  
**

**Title: So... Who was the devil? Will and Ruby both died...**

**Too sort for anyones liking, but it has to do.  
Thanks for reading and please review!**


	7. The Real Lavanya

**A/N: Warning! Those unfamiliar with my stories, universe and books have an information-heavy chapter in front of them!**

…

Chapter 7, 'The Real Lavanya"

She felt the softness of silk and the warmth of her body surround her. She slowly opened her eyes and looked dazed at the ceiling. She stretched a bit. 'I never slept so well!'

She sat up and looked around her. She was in a room strange to her memory. Where was she?

Her memory came back to her; the last thing she remembered was she was about to be executed. She wondered how the girls would react when they realised it was just a copy of her. The man in the strange copper armour had made it. Who was he, and what was his goal?

…

"_It is ti-"_

"_Just get over with it." Will snapped at him. The man startled a little but walked towards her and released her from the wall. She felt the chains loosen but without the sound of the lock being used._

_The man lead her into the elevator and before stepping in, he scooped Ruby up on his shoulder. Once all three of them were inside the elevator, the man made a strange series of signs with his hands and the elevator started to move up. The signs remembered Will of Ruby's signs when she did magic. Was this man a vampire too and belonged to the same enclave – or whatever their groups might be called – and came to fetch them? It made a little sense to bring her too, since she was about to become a vampire._

_Once the elevator leveled with the floor, the man kicked the door open and stepped out. Will was a little engrossed when she saw all the corpses lying around. "Bloody mess she made. But it made my job a hell'f a lot easier."_

"_Gather up!" The man called and from all directions, machinelike tigers walked towards him. "We're leaving."_

_Why was he using those machines too? These ones looked very clean and professionally constructed, unlike Ruby's contraptions that looked like scrapyard metal. Could the snake be one of his too? Was he the one trying to give her that sniper rifle?_

"_What is happening?" Will asked confused._

_The man laughed a little in his armour, giving it a strange, dull tone to it. "It's time to make up for my mistakes, that's what happening."_

"_What mist- " Before Will could finish her question, the man revealed something pretty similar to the Heart of Kandrakar. But unlike the _real_ counterpart, this one was very dark and made out of the copper metals similar to the armour and the machines._

"_Sorry, Will. This might hurt a little." The man made some signs against it with his free hand – essentially carrying Ruby without holding on to her – and Will started to feel weak. As if energy was pulled out of her. The world started to blur around her and her head started to feel light. She hit the floor before she realised. The last thing she saw before her eyes closing was an exact copy of her, from top to toe. It was as if she looked in a mirror and was a little startled to see how bad she actually looked._

**...**

Questions thundered through her mind. Who was that man? Why did he rescue her _and_ Ruby? Moreover, why was she still alive if she had vampirism and the 72 hours should have been over!

The answer on the last made Will think of the moment Ruby bit her. Did Ruby pull the virus out just before… suicide? There was no other explanation for it if she was here. Ruby cured her in her last moments.

'_I wonder what she had done if I hadn't said such awful things to her…'_ Will wondered sad.

She sat up to see where she was. She was in a big room with a more Victorian-style touch to it. On the walls hung metal torches that shone in a bright - but eye friendly – bluish light. There hung some still-lives paintings on the wall. Including a big painting, opposite of her, that depicted a large steampunk city in high details. On the floor lay a long woollen carpet with all kinds of colours and patterns. Her bed was king-size and her blanket – and her nightgown she wore now– were made out of fine, white silk.

'_I'm going to hit whoever put this on me if it was a male.'_ Will thought blushing.

The odd thing about the bed was that she lay more to the right of it. Looking to the right she saw another person lay beside her with her head turned the other way. The brown hair with the braid tipped her off; Ruby.

She was alive after bleeding out like that? She could see Ruby breath softly. The blankets moved up and down as gently as the breathing noise she made.

The gasping sound Will made woke Ruby. The girl shuddered and slowly sat up. She turned surprised to Will. "So, you're death to, uh. Welcome to the Realm of the Death." There was a strange sad but sadistic tone to her voice.

"Realm of the Death?"

Ruby nodded. "That's where all of the Dragontitanian religion go to when they die."

Will's mouth fell a little open from the confusing statement Ruby just made, but instead told her something. "I don't think we are death. Just before my execution, someone came and took us out. I think.

Ruby's body collapsed. "You're kidding me, right? I failed at suicide _again_?'

Will was surprised. "Again? How do you mean 'again'?"

"Why would you care?" Ruby asked before looking around. "Oh gods! We're not where we think we are?"

Will pulled her shoulders up.

Ruby jumped out of the bed in a single move and walked towards the door. "Ha! I can't kill myself, but these guys surely can! I just kill on of theirs and I am death! HA!"

With a dark enthusiasm she tried to open the door, but it wouldn't budge. She sighed deep and then looked at Will. "You!"

She walked up to her, climbed on the bed and took place over her on hands and knees. "You kill me! You already hate me! Just strangle me, hit me on the head with something heavy – I don't care how! Just kill me!"

Something snapped in Will. Killing her once was horrible enough, but seeing Ruby actually _ask_ her to kill her. Why did Ruby want to die so badly? Was it because of what she said?

Ruby just went on jading about how Will could kill her or how she could kill herself.

It had been a reflex of some kind. The slap echoed through the whole room for a moment before fading.

Ruby slowly sat back and laid her hand against her cheek. An imprint of Will's hand appeared in red.

"Enough!" Will yelled at her at full lung as she sat up. "Stop talking about killing yourself like that!"

Will and Ruby looked at each other in an awkward silence.

"But… you wanted me death. You told me you would be happy if I died. Everyone would be happy if I died." Ruby muttered.

Will guiltily nodded and glanced away. "After what you've done to me, everyone would be." She carefully said. She then looked back at Ruby. "But if you die, so will Lavanya. I don't want Lavanya to die. Especially not with _those_ eyes."

"Why would you care about either of us? Ruby and me are the same person and you don't care about either of them." Ruby softly said with a sad yet angry tone.

"Do you care for your dad after what he did for you?" Will asked. "I don't care about Ruby the same way. She made my live a hell. But Lavanya never wronged me."

Ruby glanced down. She embraced her belly and cropped up on her knees. Will heard soft whimpers come from her and saw tears dripping on her dress, muttering 'sorry' more times Will could count. Ruby took her face in her hands and suddenly cried aloud. "I knew that bargain was a bad idea! I knew it. Yet I still agreed with it. Why was I so stupid! Why am I doing everything wrong?"

She moved her hands past her head, hid her head in her knees and covered the back of her head as if she was scared for something, and cried.

Will tried to lay a hand on Ruby's shoulder, but Ruby slapped it away. "Don't touch me! Before I do something horrible to you again!" In a single move – without looking where she was heading – she jumped off the bed and ran towards the door, thinking it was going to let her trough. There was a awful sound as Ruby collided with the solid steel door. Her body collapsed to the ground and the room turned silent if it was not for Will screaming and hurrying for Ruby and kneeled beside her.

She lay Ruby long out in front of her and checked for any serious injury, but there were none. Will became curious for a certain type of injury and pulled Ruby's sleeves up. Her arms were clean of any cuts. Therefore, it was true what she had said, the cuts heal fast. However, if that was true, how many times had she cut herself by now? Thousands of times?

Will stroke with a hand over Ruby's wrist, feeling a certain pity for her. Not for the cuts, but for the girl's psyche. She was so fearful of Will it was almost unrealistic.

Instinctively she took Ruby's upper body on her lap and gently stroked her hair. The fact it was not red nor the braid cut off did not hit her. She just cared about helping Ruby. Ruby did not seem bad. She just needed some guidance.

The world though Will was death and she was here with Ruby, locked up in a room somewhere. If she wanted to get out of here, she needed an ally. This was something's she did not dare to overcome on her own. Beside, Ruby knew so much more about the mysteries surrounding them it would be stupid to be enemies of the unknown.

Ruby groaned softly and her eyes opened. Will embraced her and stroked her hair gently. "Are you all rig-" As one could expect, once Ruby saw Will she struggled out of the hug, but Will already prepared for that and held tight to Ruby, trying to keep a proper balance between a hug and a grip, not wanting to let go of her, but neither to frighten her. She whispered softly in Ruby's ears to calm down. "There's nothing to be afraid of. I am not going to hurt you. It's all right."

Ruby cropped up on Will's lap, knowing Will would not let go of her but not knowing that Will only meant good. Ruby tried to keep the sobs in, but sometimes a shudder went through her.

"It's all right. I won't hurt you, I promise." Will said.

"Why would I believe you?" Ruby asked in between the sobs.

Will smiled a little. "Do you believe in anything?"

Ruby shook her head gently. "No, why would I?"

"Well, then it's time to start believing in at least _something_." Will answered. "You cannot go on like this. Look at yourself. You look like a puppy afraid of its own shadow."

"Just… just kill me already." Ruby sniffed. "Just-"

"I _won't_ kill a friend." Will said stern. She was not sure if it was too early to call Ruby her friend, but how would she call Ruby then?

"But I'm not your friend." Ruby softly said.

Will rested her own head against Ruby's. "But Lavanya is. And if you die, so will she. And I can't let that happen."

Ruby took a deep sniff and looked at Will.. "But I'm Lavanya! Ruby's the alter ego."

Will was surprised. "What? But-but… I thought Lavanya was just a way to get close to me!"

Ruby/Lavanya sniffed again, cleaned the goo from her nose with the back of her hand, and shook her head. "No. I made Ruby up so I could attack you, so you wouldn't suspect me."

"But why attack me in the first place?" Will wondered.

Lavanya sighed and rested her head against Will's chest. For some reason she had calmed a lot, _why_ was unclear to Will. "I made a deal with someone before I got to know you. In exchange for my help and knowledge about the Dragontitanians and the Magichinan Lord I would get everything I needed for live. Food, shelter, clothes, blood, sex." She said. "But after I met you, things changed. You were the second person in my live to notice me in a positive way. But you soon lost interest and I got scared. I had Ruby make your live hell so _I_ could save you – somehow – and you would notice me again. We would be friends. I… I… I'm sorry…"

Will was surprised to hear this. _She_ herself was the trigger to all this. That day when she asked Lavanya about vampirism and walked away, if she hadn't walked away but chosen to sit next to her, none of this would have happened. None of it.

"Hey, Lavanya… You said you made mistakes, but you are not the only one. Remember the time I sat next to you and asked if you were a vampire?" Will asked. Lavanya nodded. "If I hadn't walked away, if I had chosen to sit next to you and talk about nonsense like we did, nothing of this would have happened." Will felt a sob come up and let it go. "I knew from the start something was wrong to you, I could read it in your eyes. But instead of at least helping you, I took my own problems and walked away…"

"We both made mistakes, didn't we?" Lavanya asked softly. Will nodded with a wry smile.

"Yeah, _we_ did."

Lavanya moved her arms around Will's waist and held her close to her. "Thanks, Will."

Will moved one arm around Lavanya's shoulders and the other around her back and took her in a hug.

They sat like this for a while. It was a little awkward sitting like this, but it was nice too. She actually made up with her worst enemy.

She knew that she did not bear real hate towards their friends. Not more than enough for a little fight. Calling them stupid for not listening to her. But that wasn't a reason to start war with them, right? Once this part of her messy live was over, she would seek out the girls again and make up. No name clearing, just apologizing. She should have told them after all. Just like what everyone said; teamwork and friendship where important for them because it gave them a strength no enemy could have or would use, only break. And she broke that very friendship and teamwork by holding back her troubles for herself. It made sense that _she_ was the enemy here.

Will startled up as the door made a sound similar to a lock being turned and used her feet as breakers to protect her and Lavanya as the door opened. She yelled to the one operating the door to watch out. Will and Lavanya crawled some steps away from the door and someone stepped in, clad in a rather odd and 'old' garment; a French maiden's dress.

"Pardon me." The girl said, looking surprised at the two girls entangled in each other - and Lavanya's face being pretty… disgusting by now, similar to the imprint she left on Will's chest – "I… was send to bring you some new clothes."

Will looked surprised at her chest and nodded. "Yeah, I could use some."

Lavanya had a smug smile, took a piece of the end of Will's nightgown, cleaned her face with it and emptied her nose on it.

"Now I could _really_ use some." Will sighed, getting a grin of Lavanya as reply.

The girl seemed to be disgusted, but tried very hard not to show it. She brought suitcase in on wheels and laid it on the bed and opened it. "The Lady said you could pick any clothes you like, one casual and one for the audience with the Lord later on." The girl explained. She bowed and left the two alone in the room.

Will was surprised to hear that the leaders of this place were involved in this. This meant something far bigger than her or Lavanya was going on, especially because of that bargain deal Lavanya made. Who wanted Meridian destroyed and provided Ruby the tools to do so? She would ask this once at the audience – now was time for a change of clothes!

The first thing Will and Lavanya did was to take the nightgown off. As they threw it away they discovered that this was all they had been wearing. The sudden nakedness took Will by surprise and she covered her breast and her private parts off with her hand and felt the blush on her cheeks. Lavanya on the other hand wasn't so shameful as Will and glanced interested at Will's body. Ironically, that was exactly what made Will feel uncomfortable.

'_Nothing to worry about! We're girls! She isn't some kind of pervert!'_ Will thought embarrassed.

"What are you hiding? It's not like I've never seen those." Lavanya said with a smile. If it was to give courage or to make her blush more wasn't clear. But Will blushed.

'_Besides, I'm going to need my hands if I want to put on the clothes.'_ Will thought and slowly pulled her hands away.

Lavanya stepped to her and pulled her hands away. Will felt odd all over her body now that Lavanya was looking her all over, but couldn't help glance at Lavanya too and even make comparison between their bodies.

Will shook her hands. "Let's find some clothes, shall we?" She tried to say as casual as she could.

"But then I can't look at you!" Lavanya joked but let Will know she wasn't _too_ serious by releasing her arms.

Both dug in the suitcase of neatly folded clothes, pulled them out and laid it on the bed. They dressed into their casual clothes first.

Both girls wore similar clothes, but were different in the details. They wore a dark midriff top under a dark, hooded, casual jacket, dark casual trousers and darker trainers, all detailed with red lines all over.

"It's like I've put a mirror in front of me." Will said.

Lavanya scratched sheepishly on the back of her head. "I never liked girl's clothes so much. Someone that's beautiful doesn't need to be dressed nicely is what I always say."

Will blushed and took it a bit as a compliment. She never considered herself one of the prettier girls in her human form, but with Lavanya's saying in thought, she felt satisfied about her style. _'Friends for a minute and I am already taking a liking of you.'_ Will thought happily.

The only thing about the whole thing that bothered her a bit was that there were no bras. It has been ages since she did not wear one and it felt weird not to wear one, but also knowing that Lavanya did not have one either. For some reason it… pricked her toughs.

Shaking the thoughts away by shaking her head, she looked around at the mess. The gowns in one corner, the bed all messed up. "Looks like my room."

"Add rats and you've got mine." Lavanya said with a smile.

"Rats?" Will asked curious.

Lavanya nodded proud. "Yeah! Breakfast at bed! Yummie!"

Will lifted a finger and opened her mouth to ask, but her stomach said 'Too much has already been said!' So instead of asking for the rats, she asked about the door. "You think we could leave this room?"

Lavanya shrugged and walked towards the door. "Only one way to find out." The door has not been locked again and the maiden was not around. "Let's explore the place! I've never been here before!"

Lavanya ran to the left of the corridor and Will followed her. Just before Lavanya had rammed herself against the door, she had said something about this place belonging to someone she knew. Will asked her about that.

"This place is a colony of the Dragontitan on Meridian, specialised in Magichinan technology. You know, the clockwork things." Lavanya said. "I can't remember exactly who runs this place, but I do remember that there is an O as third letter and an S on the end."

"And who are the Dragontitan and what is Magichinan and what are they doing on Meridian and-"

Lavanya spun around and looked surprised at Will. "You really don't know anything about that, don't you? I guessed so much when you called me a vampire, but now I know for sure."

Will shook her head. "My mind is having a meltdown. I've no idea what's going on!"

Lavanya walked to the closest bench in the hall she could find and sat down, gesturing Will to sit beside her. "It's a pretty big secret what I'm about to tell you." Will was all ears. "Humans aren't the only race that inhabits Earth. Another race called the Dragontitan live right under your noses. The Dragontitanians have colonies all around the galaxy, including Meridian. This branch of the colonies is especially for Magichinan. Magic and machinery – usually steam and clockwork – combined. Again, due to the ties of Meridian being with humans on Earth, the people of Meridian have no clue about Dragontitan, or the colony. Of course they have found things, but they usually put them off as being of an extinct civilization." Lavanya explained. "That's the basics anyway."

Will didn't know what to say and her mouth dropped a little. "Any more surprises?"

Lavanya nodded. "I am not a vampire and you were never infected with the virus. I only used it to scare you, but I infected you with nothing."

"But what about the blood drinking and stuff? Is that of those Drago…guys?" Will asked.

Lavanya shook her head. "No. You were born with a human soul, I was born with a draconian soul. I need to consume _lifeblood_ in order to survive. The more magic energy the person has, the better. Like your blood. It's perfect and it tastes great."

"Aren't you worried about others? I mean, aren't you shunned for what you are?"

"No. Unlike popular human believes, the Dragontitanians have made peace with vampires, werebeast and all sorts of creatures. Under the humans I will be made out for vampire and they would try to kill me. But not under the Dragontitanians." Lavanya explained.

"Oké. Enough mind-blowing information for today! Dragons, vampires, _you._ I've had enough for now." Will sighed, already having a headache from all the information.

Lavanya smiled and stood up. "The only thing I don't get is… how come you are still conscious."

Will followed her and looked confused at her. "What do you mean?"

"The rooms here are different than what humans use. Look at the door we just went through. Remember how big the room was? Now look at the door next to it. If physically doesn't make sense. If you were human, you would have fainted the moment the door opened."

Will shook her head to get rid of all the confusing stuff. "Sort story?"

"Something big is going on."

'_Well, something we didn't know.'_ Will thought, wincing at every heartbeat as the headache thumped in her head.

As they continued walking, they met up with the girl. "I see you've picked some clothes?"

Both girls nodded with a smile.

"Say, mind if we walk around the place?" Lavanya asked.

The maiden nodded. "As the Lady expected you would want to, she already told me that you can go into the city, as long as you are here at dusk."

"I was talking about the palace, but the city is even better!" Lavanya said, suddenly sounding cheery, grabbed Will's hand and pulled her along.

Will let herself be dragged, trying not to stumble as she did. Her thoughts were more about how Lavanya had suddenly changed. Less than an hour ago, she was shabby, but now she was cheery. Just like on school with the tickling fight. From sad to happy in a moment. Having made up really did some good, didn't it? Will felt no regrets making up with Lavanya, rather, it was worth it.

As Will was dragged, she took the time to look around the place. Again, it all looked similar to the Victorian style mixed with this 'Magichinan'. Servants consisted out of humans and of machines. The machines usually did the heavier work like pulling or towing. It was a little odd to see the machines huffing steam about and clanking a melancholy of metallic sounds as they moved. What Will wondered was why a colony of a race from Earth was living so medieval, rather than modern. Maybe it was because they were on Meridian, but still.

She still could not believe another race lived on Earth without anyone knowing. Did the Oracle know about this? If so, why has he not told them about it? If not, why does the Oracle _not_ know about it?

Stepping into a new world for the second time still felt weird. First Meridian and now this. Was it for the other generations of Guardians like this too?

Will noticed Lavanya taking some turns and wondered if she knew where she was heading. "Are you sure this is the way out?"

"Nope!" Lavanya said, but at the same time she found the main entrance of the keep and ran the courtyard up. "And… found it!"

Will collapsed on her feet from all the running and panted. "Give me… a moment. Please."

Lavanya looked at her like a curious puppy, tilting her head a bit. To Will she did not seem tired at all.

"Where do you get all that energy?" Will asked her.

Lavanya looked surprised at her hands. "I guess I'm just excited."

Will smiled a little. "Could you hold a little back? Otherwise I'll drop death tired before noon."

Lavanya replied by grinning sheepishly and scratching behind her ear. "I'll try." She helped Will stand up once she regained enough energy to walk, and walked through the courtyard towards the city.

Seeing as everything was mediaeval, Will expected the town to be a reeking mess, but the contrary was true. Even more than in a town like Heatherfield. Will was surprised how clean everything was and how clean the air was.

What also surprised her was that there were mediaeval adaptions of modern things, like garbage bins, but also electricity. Next to all that were the machine things, or steampunk. In the distance Will could see what resembled skyscrapers. One of them even had an enormous zeppelin docked next to the top.

On street level were carts & wagons, but also odd-looking cars with steam engines. At one point, a steamtrain on wheels drove through the street! Lavanya and Will looked in awe as the machine passed by, but nobody seemed to care about the train at all. The train, cars, wagons and pedestrians fitted easily through the wide streets. Lavanya explained that the wide if the street was to allow big things to pass through the city – like the train, but Lavanya mentioned giant tanks passing through too.

'_When I saw Meridian the first time, I thought I was stuck in a history book. But this is a fantasy book!'_ Will thought exited. She wanted to see everything and know everything around her. Lavanya was nothing compared to Will in terms of being energetic now.

Will was quick to spot the first shop with trinkets. She dragged Lavanya towards it and looked at what the stall had to sale. The stall was filled with all sorts of bones, made up with feathers and jewellery. In the middle of the stall was a large beautiful pillow with something sleeping on it, which had similarities to a small dragon rolled up like a cat. It's scales were a fiery red and from the nostrils came small lines of smoke.

"A-a dragon?" Will asked, somewhat fearful.

Lavanya looked curious at it. "A redscale, just like me! Mister?"

Will looked surprised at Lavanya. "What do you mean? You're not a dragon."

The small dragon seemed to wake up in an instant and looked stern at Will, spitting a little fire from its nostrils. Although the fire was out of range for Will, the redhead yelped and startled back.

"We are no dragons! We're Draconians. Capital 'D', 'c' as the forth letter and ended with 'ians'." The dragon huffed and sat down on its rear. "And who are you, meat sack?"

Will was muted, so Lavanya did the talking. "That's Will and I'm Lavanya. Pleased to meet you."

"Siala, Lord of -" the dragon began, supposedly calling out its name in an epic and dramatic way, when a voice from the shop called his _real_ name.

"Lily, die to Forini?" A rather young male asked. He came through the front door, ringing a bel. "Ah, Forini."

If the dragon was not red before, it certainly was now. "Don't call me 'Lily'! My name is-"

"Lily, no diarasi yut hulia torriacly" The man said. The man looked quite the gentleman in his garments and addressed the girls with a bow. "Zinu die Musta**-**"

"Ass." The dragon said with a grin.

"Moustache… Gunias?" The man asked, looking uninterested at him.

"It's better than Mustavio." The dragon asked with a grin.

The man, Mustavio, chook his head and turned to the girls. To Will's surprise he casually talked in a language she had never heard before. Lavanya seemed to understand him perfectly though, but oddly answered in English, which in turn the man understood. The dragon showed the same phenomenon as Lavanya did, talking in English with her, but the man seemed to understand him perfectly while talking in his own language.

"They are really pretty, but we don't have much money on us." Lavanya said.

"Uhm, Lavanya… what is he saying?" Will asked. Both she, the dragon as well as the man was looking surprised at her.

"Oh yeah!" Lavanya seemed to remember something important. "In this place they speak a different language. I have no issues with that because of what I am, but you, on the other hand… You have no idea what he's saying!"

"I noticed." Will sighed. "Wait, how can you hear them and talk to them so casually?"

"All draconians of some sort have the ability to speak the language of the draconians. It sounds like I am speaking English, or any language. But it's just your brain understanding what I say." Lavanya explained in a single stroke of words. Even though Lavanya said 'Your brain understands what I say', Will thought '_Dafuq?'_

Lavanya snapped with her finger and turned to the man. "Do you know a minstrel's shop? My friend needs translation magic _badly_."

The man nodded and gave Lavanya what seemed like directions. "Come, let's go." Lavanya said to Will. "Bye, Lily! Bye Moustache!"

"Uhm… bye?" Will said with a wave of her hand and followed Lavanya. After a while of walking – and sightseeing –, they arrived at another shop. This one did not have a stall in front of it and as Will and Lavanya entered, a melody played up. "Fitting for a minstrel's shop." Lavanya mused.

Will looked surprised around. It had something of a music story, but than for 'old' things like music sheets and instruments like flutes, guitars and violins. On the counter lay another dragon on a pillow. This dragon had greyish scales and instead of two, had four wings. On the end of its long tail was something that resembled a flyer. Again, it was sleeping.

"Hey, another dragon!" Will said. The attack of Lily came back to her mind and she corrected herself. "I-I mean 'draconian'."

Lavanya leaned smiling against the counter. "You're a fast learner. If this fellow spewed at you, you'd be deaf for a while."

"What does he spew than? And how do you tell?"

Lavanya raised her hand and stuck her index finger up. "First: the colour. Draconians are colour tagged. Red ones spew fire, grey ones can shriek and spew airbursts, blue ones can spit frostbite, green ones can spew fine dust, black and white ones spew acid."

"Okay. So making them angry is a _very_ bad idea." Will stated.

Lavanya nodded sheepishly. "I'm a redscale! I can breathe fire like one!"

Will and Lavanya startled as they heard a female voice from behind. "Just don't do it inside, dear." The dragon said. She sat on her rear and had her tail winded around her legs. "But enough chattering. Anything you want to buy?"

Lavanya nodded. "Do you have translation magicks by any chance? My friend here doesn't speak Isdra and we've dinner with the Lord of the place."

"Translation magicks? It has been a while since anyone asked for that! Give me a moment; I will see if we have an amulet in the back." The dragon said. She jumped up and flew fluently to the back of the store. Will took notice of the wings and saw that the back and the front wings were moving separately.

"Could you explain me why drag-_conians_ are in almost every shop?" Will asked curious and leaned against the counter too.

"Chance at most. But it isn't weird for a kejone to seek employment with a human. The kejona rather call it trading. In exchange for guarding and such they get stuff like food." Lavanya explained. "Oh, and kejona are those smaller draconians."

Will sighed. "Really, it couldn't be simple? Everything has something in its shadow."

The dragon/kejone flew back and landed in the pillow with something in its left front paw. "It's empty, but you should be able to recharge it."

Lavanya nodded and then sighed. "Darn. Didn't we already came to the conclusion that we can't pay?"

Will startled, "Right!" Though then thought about what Lavanya said about kejona and trading. "But how about we trade something for it?"

Lavanya looked surprised at Will, but then started to laugh. "You know how expensive these amulets are?"

Will blushed embarrassed. "It was just an idea!"

From the corner of her eyes she could see the kejone's belly growing a little in size and spat something to Lavanya. Whatever it was, it hurt Lavanya like being hit by a pebble. Lavanya yelped and looked angry at the kejone. "What was that for?"

"You aren't the brightest either. I told you it is empty – so it isn't as expensive - and I like your friend's idea. I will settle it with a nice piece of music. A song. If she sings and I like it, I will give you the amulet." the kejone said, pointing at Will.

Will gulped a little. "Sing? I can't sing." How was she going to pull this off?

The kejone flew away, came back with a paper and gave it to Will. She read the first few lines and concluded it was impossible because it was in another language. "I-I don't know if I can do this…" Will stammered.

"Come on, Will! I want to hear you sing!" Lavanya said, trying to cheer her into it.

Will tried to memorize the piece of text as best she could. Once her head locked on to a melody, she decided to try it. "Well, here goes nothing." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Once feeling tranquil, she let the words flow.

**A/N: For my amusement and your convenience, here is the link to the song - just remove the spaces - : youtube watch?v=8eO8ZYvBXpg**

Once she was done with the song, looked surprised at Lavanya and the kejone. Both seemed to be a little in awe of her performance. The kejone grinned and said: "The best bargain I have made in years."

She flew up with the ends of the necklace in her front paws, flew once around Will's neck and connected the necklace. As the kejone hovered behind her, Will could feel the breezes of wind her wings caused in her neck. With a small tug, the kejone had secured the necklace and let it go. She then flew to the pillow and landed. "Best bargain indeed."

Will smiled shyly. "Was it really that good?"

Lavanya nodded enthusiastic whereas the kejone nodded proud. "You might just be a true Minstrel."

Lavanya and Will turned surprised to the kejone. "You think?" Lavanya asked. "Could that be it why the lord wants to dine with us?"

The kejone shrugged its tiny shoulders. "Who knows? I have no business with that man."

Will took the amulet in her hands. It was circular with a double triangle in it, nearly resembling a pentagram or a Jew star from the Second World War. "So, how does it work?"

"First you need to charge it." Lavanya said. "Would raw fire suffice?" she asked the kejone.

The kejone nodded. Lavanya formed several gestures with her hands and touched with the last gesture the amulet. Will felt a strange sensation hanging around the amulet and Lavanya's hand. The sensation subsided a little when Lavanya took her hands back.

"It works automatically when you listen or speak. Once it is running out of energy, you will notice and she can refill it for you again." The kejone said, pointing at Lavanya.

Lavanya looked surprised at it. "But that's an advanced spell! And you gave it to Will for just a song?"

The kejone grinned. "I was always curious to the voice of a Vandom."

Will looked surprised at her. "Wait, how do you know my family name? I never told you that!"

"I think tonight is going to be interesting for you, dear." The kejone said and lay down as before, her wings folded around her body.

Will sighed. "Standard trope; she isn't going to give me more information, is she?"

"Well guessed. I wouldn't want to spoil the surprises." The kejone said, yawned and slept in an instant.

The girls left the shop. "Where did you learn to sing like that?" Lavanya asked.

Will shrugged. "I suppose it's in the family, _if_ I were to believe her."

"Let's see if we can find the other scales. I really want you to show them!" Lavanya said.

Lavanya and Will went looking around the shops to find the other 'scales'. Will later understood it were the other colours. They had already seen a grey- and redscale, so they were looking for a black-, white-, blue- and greenscale.

They looked through windows and asked pedestrians for any information and soon found a greenscale and a redscale in a blacksmith.

The blacksmith was a large building with massive wooden doors as the façade. In the underside of the wooden door was a smaller door through which customers could enter. The inside was as much as Will expected it to be, but just a little. Most of the things were situated out of the middle, creating a place for them to work on the big machines. Around the walls were two levels of catwalks where you could work on from higher elevations. There was a fire pit in the far most left corner, tools and workbenches in the far right corner. Nobody seemed to be present.

"Hallo?" Will asked. After a few moments something flew out of the fire pit towards them. It was the redscale and it was covered in embers of the fire.

"Heya! Welcome to Pepper's Blacksmite!" The female, red kejone said cheery. "Is there anything we can do for you? Swords? Daggers? Artillery pieces?"

Will looked surprised at her. "Black… smite? Aren't you a blacksmith?"

From the back came a woman with long rad hair in a tail, clad in a black overcoat and with goggles in her hair, with a green kejone on her shoulder. "Ursil! Break's over! We've got loads of weapons to make!"

"Sorry, no business for today." And she flew off to the woman.

Will and Lavanya followed her curiously.

The woman looked somewhat stern at them. "What do you want?" She asked. Now asked directly, Will noticed the translation amulet working perfectly. "If you haven't noticed, I'm pretty busy. The Lord randomly thought it was funny and sent every blacksmith a big order. Every weapon under my specialisation, what is up with him all of the sudden? Are we at war?"

"S-sorry." Will said. "I was just curious about your dra-… Kejone."

"Will, its 'kejona' when there is more of one of them." Lavanya explained.

"Kejona…" Will sighed. "Mind if we watched for a moment?" she said to the woman.

She thought for a moment and then nodded. "A few minutes won't hurt. Just do not get in my way."

Will and Lavanya nodded and watched from the side how the woman worked. There were already some weapons in the fire pit and the woman took them out with some large tongs. Ursil, the redscale, hovered beside the weapon and spew flames over it to keep it hot. She brought it over to a workbench and started to hammer on it for a while. The greenscale took two cuplike hammers and helped shape the weapon further while the redscale kept it mouldable with its flames. Once done she put the sword in a barrel with water, causing the water to sputter as it reached the boiling point instantaneously. She then held the cooled down weapon out and the greenscale hovered next to it. Its belly swelled up and it spew a sand like dust out with amazing strength. The woman turned the sword a little and after repeating it a few times, Will could see the shine the blade held. The woman then walked to another workbench and fitted it with a premade handle. Once she was done, she walked up to Will and Lavanya. "You think you can try this one?"

Lavanya nodded and took the sword first. She swung it around and preformed a few trick with it before coming to a conclusion. "I rather handle a dagger, but this one lays great in my hand! If I had the money, I would buy it!"

Will tried the sword too. Her movements were much clumsier than Ruby and she was not sure what to check the sword for, but she had to admit it was agile and light, while seemingly strong and sharp. "It's excellent! Far better than Phobos swords at any rate."

The woman looked suddenly surprised at her. "How do you know that?" the woman asked surprised.

"I f-..." Will stopped talking. She was death and she rather liked to keep that. If it was revealed she still lived, if it somehow leaked out, Kandrakar would go hunt for her and she was not in the mood for something like that.

"I fought against him. Caleb usually stole the weapons from him and so I know a bit how they handle." Will said and then gulped. What if these people were _against_ the rebels, then she would hang for throwing Phobos of his throne.

The woman answered relieving: "Ha! The old guerrilla trick! I love that one. Use one's weapons against him. The best one I ever heard was the battle at Red Cliff, some centuries ago. The strategic of a cornered warlord set sail over a river towards the enemy fortress. The enemy wanted to show off and fired thousands of arrows at the ships and fend the strategic off. But once the strategic arrived at the docks, the first thing he did was count how many arrows he had caught."

Will and Lavanya sniggered. "So they actually gave the warlord the arrows?" Will asked. "That's brilliant!"

"But that wasn't all. The strategic was a real genius, even 'controlling' Mother Nature." She said and Will and Lavanya listened to her stories. They talked for a few hours before the kejone remembered the woman she had to work. Will felt guilty for taking up the woman's time and wanted to leave, but the woman didn't seem to mind at all.

"All that talking about weapons really put me in the mood for some smiting." The woman said with a grin. "You know what; keep the sword as a present."

"Wow, thanks!" Will said. "I don't know how to thank you!"

"Really, this won't even cut it." Ursil, the redscale, said. "If Pepper is in the mood for some smiting, she's one of the best!" The redscale made strange gestures with its paws that made her think of Lavanya's and Ruby's gestures and the last gesture was touching the sword itself. "A fire enchantment. Call out 'Nara' when holding to it, and it'll burst out into flames!"

The greenscale did the same. "An Earth enchantment. Now it will take a lot more beating before breaking."

Will looked unbelieving at them. "Y-you're just giving this to me?"

The redscale shook its head. "Nope. You gave pepper a great mood, that's what you did."

Lavanya looked with a pouted lip at them. "Don't I get anything?"

The redscale sniggered. "A redscale like you shouldn't need a sword like that! We're walking terror flamethrowers!"

"Well, I do have a leftover dagger." The woman, probably Pepper, said and walked over to the tool racks and took a sheath for Will's sword and a sheathe with dagger for Lavanya and handed it to them. Lavanya seemed to be really glad with the dagger and hugged Pepper. "Thanks! I feel so naked without a dagger!"

"Great, now stop chocking me!" Pepper coughed and Lavanya let blushing go.

Will and Lavanya waved her goodbye and left the store.

"And remember! If you need anything, visit Peppers Blacksmite again!" Pepper called after them.

Will grinned. "I sure will!"

As Will closed the door behind her, she realised something. "Wait a moment. Did she just give a real sword to a girl of 16?"

Lavanya nodded. "Of course. Everyone here has some kind of a weapon."

Will sighed as she connected the sheath to her belt. "Well, I can't dump it either. So, I'll keep it."

As Will looked at the sky, she noticed it was already getting dark. "Oh no! The dinner! We've got to get back to the palace!"

Lavanya yelped as loud as Will did and they both ran towards the palace. It took almost half an hour to get back to the palace and just by a stroke of luck could find their room.

Will and Lavanya immediately dressed into their chic clothes: black dresses with long sleeves and a medium skirt and normal shoes.

They waited a while after they were ready to get their energy back when someone knocked on the door. Will glanced at her sword. "Should I bring it?" Lavanya nodded 'yes and showed Will that she hid her dagger away. "Just because he saved us, doesn't mean I am going to trust him. Just carry the sword in your left hand. I'm there to help you."

Will gave her a smile. "Thanks, Lavanya."

"Come in." Will then called. The door opened and a maiden came in.

"The Lord is waiting for you." She said.

Will and Lavanya nodded and followed her.

Will's heart was still stammering in her chest of the running. She took deep breaths to relax, but the anxiousness for the upcoming meeting did not help her either. Who was this 'Lord'? Why had he saved her, while making her friends think she died?

After rounding a corner, Will saw Pepper with her kejona walking through the hallway. This time she had the goggles covering her eyes, giving her a bit of a badass look. Ursil and the greenscale sat on her shoulders on either side. "Hey, Pepper. How did the smiting go?" She asked.

Pepper smiled. "I finished the order. I see you still have the sword?"

Will looked at her sword. "Yeah, thanks again."

Pepper bowed to Will. "No, thank you." She said with a smile. "It wasn't hard to guess who you are, Former Guardian."

Will was surprised to hear Pepper say that. But Pepper didn't seem spent more time on her and continued walking.

After some walking, they reached a double door. "Will, he wants to see you first." The maiden suddenly said. "She has to wait outside for a moment."

Will and Lavanya glanced worried at each other. Lavanya suddenly said: "I'm not letting Will alone." And smiled at Will. Will felt the defensive reaction of Lavanya nice. It felt as if they were friends for much longer. Making up with her was already showing its fruits.

"I'm sorry. But the Lord stated that she should come alone. Once he is finished with Will, you may enter." The maiden answered emotionless.

Will felt something wasn't right. "How do you know my name?"

The maiden smiled a little. "He will explain everything to you."

Will sighed. "Well, I suppose I'll have to go alone…"

Lavanya didn't agree with her, but gave in too. Just before Will entered, she showed something to her.

"If he is attacking you, use these symbols." Lavanya said, showing a series of gestures with her hands. "And let energy flow through them like you did with the Magichinan Core - that sphere thing from my machines that knocked you out - but the other way around."

Will was somewhat confused, but tried to remember the gestures as best as she could.

The maiden opened the door a little for Will and in a single move she stepped in, the door suddenly closing behind her. She looked worried at the door. _'I hope this isn't a trap.'_ She said. She then turned to the chamber. _'It's a trap.'_

The room was completely empty with the walls filled with racks of all kinds of weapons. In the middle of the room stood an armour of copper. It looked a lot like the armour of the man who saved her.

"W-who are you?" Will asked and gulped, bringing her hand slowly to the handle of her new sword.

"I will tell you who I am, _if_ you can beat me." It was the same voice as the one who saved her! Without further ado he unsheathed his sword and threw it at Will! Will sidestepped and the sword stopped mid-air where she just stood. _'He's going to kill me!'_

The sword was attached to a long chain and the man pulled the sword back right in his hand. He then threw the sword in a way that it made a wide side cut towards her. She drew her sword as fast as she could, threw the sheath away and tried to block the attack. "Nara!"

The sword engulfed in flames and Will swung her sword at the coming sword, but it was no use.

The force of the bigger sword was so big it broke Will's sword in three pieces. Although the sword missed her – it was killer blow – the remaining energy in the sword threw her backwards against the wall. Her whole body ached. _'My sword!'_ she thought. _'I can't beat him without a weapon!'_

Will remembered that the whole room was filled with weapons. _'But which one should I pick? Another sword, a dagger? Maybe a spear or hammer? Anything!'_

The armoured man walked towards her for a strike. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. I expected more from you, Will." The man said.

Will felt anger burst through her. _'No way I'm going to lose to some bastard like you!'_ Will let out a feral scream, took hold of the nearest weapons she could find and attacked the man with it.

…

A/N: Wow, that's a massive chapter, folks! And lots of stuff happening too!**  
**So, Lavanya turned out to like Will and after going nuts and suicidal, Will took her in as a friend. That was nice, wasn't it?**  
**And then they went into the city to discover all kinds of cool stuff!**  
**But things went horrible when she got back! Who is this 'Lord' and why did he save her to kill her after?**  
**Can Will defeat him?

As a little bonus to this chapter, I'm asking the readers a question; which weapon should Will pick? State your answer in a review or PM me. Remember; swords, daggers, spears, hammers are just a bit of what you can choose from! Things like helbards, bows, crossbows, muskets, cannons, miniguns, staffs, whips, rat flails, hidden blades – everything is possible! Just tell me what you think Will should use to beat this mister to smithereens!**  
**And who can guess who he is? Lavanya's hint: Second letter is a h, Third letter is an o, last letter is an s, he's a bastard and we all know him as

Well, until next time! Thanks for reading and please review!

Clifffffff Hangerrrrr! :p


	8. The Magichinan Blood

**A/N: From this chapter on I disabled Word's spelling and grammar checking. It was nagging me to death, so I disabled it. This might have some strange effects on the text.  
Also, if Will speaks of Ruby, she means the Ruby alter ego of Lavanya.**

**…**

Chapter 8, _'The Magichinan Blood'_

Will lunged out with the scimitar, nearly hitting the man in the chest, but he stepped back. The man swung his big sword back at Will and she – remembering what happened to her sword – ducked. She hoped the sword would get stuck in the wall, but despite the massive force behind the sword, the man stopped within an instant and tried to slash at her.

Will jumped forwards and shot just past the man in an attempt to dodge the sword

Who was he? It suddenly came to Will; Second letter a h, third letter an o, last letter an s… PHOBOS! The one in front of him was the one who should have been in prison! But how could he be here? She guided him to prison personally! He was in prison; he was still there. How could he be here?

Then he was the one behind the attack on Meridian! He was the 'Lord' of this place somehow and used these machines to attack Meridian.

"I have no idea how you escaped, but I'll make sure you get on the stake this time!" Will yelled feral and attacked another time. To her astounding, Phobos grabbed the scimitar with his left hand _and crushed it._ The handle with the remainder of the sword trembled as Will's hand trembled.

These weapons. Why did he place them here? For him to pick up? They were rubbish! It could be a trap for her then.

No, they weren't rubbish: Pepper's sword broke in three parts too – there must have been some serious power behind that throw -. Phobos somehow became much stronger than he was ever before, able to crush these fine weapons with no effort. But why were they here then? More importantly; how was she going beat him? Or at least getting out of here alive?!

Will remembered Lavanya's advice before entering: the gestures! If he were to attack here, she had to use those gestures! But what were they again? _'Damn it! I can't think with Phobos swinging his sword at me.'_

Will ran out of the corner so she could use her size and agility compared to his mass and size. She needed to use her swiftness to beat him. But how? She needed some time to think. Time to find the weapon that she could handle naturally, but which one?

Will needed a quick tactic that bought her time. Remembering her element she came up with something: Phobos was clad in metal armour and what could metal conduct better than anything: _Lightning_.

She charged herself up with sparks and shot them towards Phobos. The lightning hit him, but it didn't seem to harm him. "Nice try, but a mere spark won't do me much!" He sheathed his sword and made gestures with his hands. Will looked surprised at them and remembered Lavanya's gestures; they were the same!

Will could just jump out of the way of his lightning bolt. Unlike Ruby's, it was of a light bluish colour.

'_What kind of magic is this? It's magic for sure. But… It's the gestures! That's how you use the magic!'_ Will thought. She kneeled on one knee and formed similar gestures towards Phobos. The whole time she let energy flow from her left hand into her right hand. The energy started to feel a little strange and she fired it off the same way as her own bolts. A large lightning bolt hit the man. It was bigger than the ones she could charge up without gestures, but drew surprisingly less energy from her.

Something started to change it Will, but she wasn't sure what it was. She looked at her hands. It felt as if she could feel things a few centimetres from her skin away.

She looked up at Phobos to see him unharmed. He threw his sword at her again and Will barely dodged it. _'His offence and defence is are too strong! How am I to beat him like this? And how come Lavanya hasn't heard this ruckus by now?'_

To Will's surprise, she had dodged the sword before it was even near her, even though it felt she barely missed it. Had he thrown it again at the exact same spot? No, something else was going on. The sword was moving _slower_. Or rather, it was moving at a speed that seemed logic and so did Phobos.

'_Seems like the bolt somehow slowed his movements.'_ Will thought. _'And that's how I'm going to beat him! By slowing him so much he can't move anymore!'_

She formed the gestures again and hit Phobos again. He threw his sword again and Will jumped aside. She watched carefully for the sword's speed, but noticed his speed hasn't decreased a second time. _'If it wasn't the bolt, what was is then? I feel… strange. What if it isn't him slowing down, but me speeding up?'_ it seemed a liable possibility.

Phobos threw the sword _again_ – getting awfully repetitive – and this time Will would use it against hem. She stepped aside and towards Phobos so she was standing next to the chain and cut it with all her strength. The chain was at its outmost length and as the chain was cut, the sword just fell on the ground.

"Ha! Now you don't have anything to throw at… me..." Will stopped talking as she remembered the _whole room was filled with weapons_ _for him to throw and use!_

Phobos let go of the chain and took the nearest weapon. Will's 'luck' played up and Phobos took the handle of a flail with on the end of the chain a ball with spikes. He began spin the ball on the chain next to him.

'_That thing is worse than the sword!'_ Will screamed mentally. She looked around for a way to protect herself. There were some shields. Although the sword was scattered, a shield was _meant_ to protect someone. But would it be able to protect her from Phobos?

She found a shield that suited her, ran around Phobos while he chased her, grabbed the shield as Phobos lunged at her. She could just hide in the corner and use the shield to cover her as the ball came down on her. _'Please protect me!'_ The resulting power from the ball jammed the shield against the wall- leaving just enough space for Will to crop up in in the corner – but it seemed to hold, For now. -. Phobos smashed the ball repeatedly at the shield. But it was a death trap. If the shield decided to fail on her, the ball would crush her!

The only option was to… teletranspose. How stupid could she have been for the past days? TELETRANSPOSE. _'Will, you're an IDIOT!'_ She focussed on just outside the room and teletransposed herself without the desired effect. Instead, she appeared in front of the door but still in the room. _'Oh, yeah. That's why I didn't use it. Everyone is blocking it!'_ But this still gave her an advantage. She wasn't in that death trap – she was still in this death trap, but at least not in that trap – and beside the door. The door was of course locked so Will resorted to violence and rammed on the door. "Lavanya! It's a trap! Phobos' here to kill me! Lavanya!" Her screams seemed to no avail as there was no response.

Phobos came at her again and Will jumped, rolled over the ground and ended on one knee before jumping up to her feet and running away. She looked around the room for a weapon that would pierce his armour. She had yet to hit him once, so she wasn't sure about his defences. The closest weapon to her was something spear like. Will grabbed it and threw it towards Phobos as best she could. Phobos just made the flail spin in front of him and the spear was scattered like a branch in the wheel of a bicycle – and we all know how that looks.

'_How am I to beat him! He must have a weakness. Yes, his cumbersomeness, but that is just the reason why I am still alive. I am faster. So, I need a fast weapon.'_

Looking around, she looked for a weapon that used speed as its attribute. That could give her the edge. Daggers! They were small and lightweight and were build to strike fast and many times.

There were varieties of daggers around the room. She could not be picky and – while dodging a blow that broke the tiles of the floor– took one from the rack just to realise she couldn't come through that spinning flail. What if she made an fake attack from the front and attacked from behind using teletransposition?

She took the closest random weapons she could find – a staff – and threw it without thinking. Instead, she focused on teletranspositioning behind Phobos. While Phobos broke the staff to pieces, she appeared behind him and used Lavanya's gestures on the dagger. It was sparkling more brightly that she could ever do with her own powers and thrust it in the small opening that was left between the torso piece and the legging. She let out a feral scream and tried to get the dagger in as deep as she could. It was a direct hit.

Phobos was electrocuted and lost control over his muscles. The flail got out of control and slammed in his breastplate. He wasn't defeated _yet_ though. But he did fell to one knee. And for a little unarmed girl with a dagger against a man in armour, that was a lot.

Will needed a better weapon. Something that could cut through his armour. But she couldn't waste time on searching for a weapon either. In a split second decision she decided to stab the weak spot and electrocute him again. Now that she knew what to do, she ran towards the closest war hammer she could find and pulled it of the rack. It was pretty heavy, but with a good swing, Phobos would feel it real good in his armour. Especially if she immobilized him. She let out a feral scream as she slammed the heavy hammer on Phobos' right foot – as he was leaning on his right knee, making the right foot open for her attack.

Phobos let an agonizing scream echo through the room.

Will screamed feral again as she hit Phobos' other leg from the left side and knocked him over. Phobos ended on his back, his foot seemingly gruesome dislodged and blood seeping out of the metal.

Now that Phobos lay on his back, with Will standing between his legs, she saw the perfect spot to hit him. She grinned as Phobos knew where she would hit and shook his head and crawled a little back. Will rose the hammer above her head, ready to crush some nuts, but Phobos suddenly kicked her legs away and Will fell on her stomach on the ground – Phobos had the bad luck that the hammer came down on his upper left leg, denting the armour and making him scream another time in pain.

Lying between his legs, Will realised she used too much stamina with swinging the hammer and running around and couldn't stand up. Phobos' stamina seemed far from depleted as he slowly stood up again, standing a little lame on his feet.

He grabbed Will at her legs and held her up in front of him with ease. "Well, it's time to end this fight. Shall I?" He asked as he brought Will eye in eye with him. Will noticed something strange in his eyes. They were brown. Phobos had blue eyes!

"You're not Pbohos." Will muttered. "Who are you?"

A strange light came from behind her and the man seemed a little startled. He threw Will aside like a branch and Will rolled until she hit the wall. A bright reddish light filled the room. Will's vision was blurry as she cried from the pain in her body, she could see enough it was fire. Despite the power of the flames, the flames did not hurt her.

Only Taranee's flames didn't hurt her. Did the girls come to save her?

She looked at the door to see the door standing on fire. But whatever walked through the room, it wasn't Taranee. It looked more like a daemon with large red bat-like wings and a long tail. The daemon conjured two fireballs up in her hands and threw them at the man. The fireballs exploded violently and knocked the man on his back. The daemon stood in front of him, it then looked at Will with a face she knew too well; Lavanya.

Was Lavanya a daemon? The only things that changed on her appearance were the wings and the tail though. The wings and the tail remembered her vaguely of Lily and Ursil though, except they were on fire. She was a redscale, of course! She had said she was a draconian, but never really looked like one. In this form she _did_ look like one.

"Kill him." Will muttered. Caring little of what she just said. She just wanted to be over with this hell. Having nearly died over five times within a week, she just wanted this to be over.

Lavanya's took a deep breath and spew powerful flames over the armoured man. The flames were big enough to engulf the man whole and hot enough to melt his armour. He was being cooked inside of his armour. Lavanya needed to spew fire a few times before the body was completely vaporized, with only a pool of metal and ash where the man had burned. When she was done, the wings slowly retracted into her body again and she fell on the ground.

Will wanted to yell for her, but couldn't find the energy to do so.

She was about to pass out when another person entered the room. She looked a lot like her mother and had the same raven black hair. The woman knelt beside Will. "Will, are you all right?"

She didn't look like her, it _was_ her!

"Damn it! I knew Thomas was up to no good. Once he's awake I'll have a good argue with him." Susan said.

Will passed out with just one last thought. She couldn't believe hearing that name. _'The man in the armour was… dad?'_

**…**

Softness and warmth surrounded her. Will shifted a little with her body to enjoy the feeling some more.

"Hey, how are you feeling?"

Will startled up, turned half and looked in the eyes of her mother. Susan smiled while stroking some bangs out of Will's face and tugged the locks behind her ears.

'_It was all but a dream.'_ Will thought relieved. _'All but one messed up dream.'_

"I'm fine." Will said and accidently let a yawn out in her mother's face. She clapped her hand in front of her mouth. "Pardon!"

Susan smiled. "You and your friend really beat up your father, didn't you?"

Will gulped and a feeling of fear filled her. "That wasn't a dream?"

Susan sighed and shook her head. "I wish it was. When you disappeared suddenly, I thought the worst. But I soon discovered that Thomas had kidnapped you."

"Wait, dad? What did he have to do with this and why did he try to kill me?" Will asked in one breath.

"I… I've been lying to you." Susan said. "Thomas isn't _just_ a jerk. He is the lord of the Province of Steel _and_ a jerk."

"A l-lord? You mean he's the leader of that place?" Will asked. Having a quick glance around her, she corrected her sentence. "This place?"

Susan nodded. "I married him, making me the lady. Things were quite for me and life was nice. But things changed when you were born. Since you are heir to the throne, carrying the blood of the magichinan, he wanted to make sure you would be more than able to follow him up when he passes away. He wanted to put you through a hellish training like he had lived through. But I didn't want you to live through that horror _too_ just because he had. So I… kidnapped you and took you to Earth."

She took a few moments to recollect memories and continued. "Your father found us and we stayed for a few years in Fadden Hills. But over and over again he tried to take you with him to Metamoor to train you. He tried everything so I would give you to him 'out of free will', going so far to sell my house and take my – meaningless - title. I managed to get the authorities to shoo him away. Not that it stopped him. He came back a few years later but I managed to relocate us to Heatherfield. I though I finally got rid of him, but it seems he found you again."

'_ has crashed. Please restart Life and hope it's normal again.'_

Will let herself sink into her pillow. "You're kidding me, are you. Please tell me you are kidding?"

Susan glanced down and sighed. "I'm sorry sweaty, I really am. I tried everything I could, but…"

Will took some long and slow breathes and tried to comprehend all this. So, she was the heir/princes of some colony of some foreign race and her dad tried to kill her after saving/kidnapping her.

"But he's death now, right? I saw Lavanya-"

Susan shook her head. "He set the room up so you would respawn. It's a pretty advanced magic and he'll be knocked out for the coming days."

And have a messed up leg. Although Will doubted this because her wounds had already healed. It was likely this respawn magic restored your body. If so, Thomas would be fully recovered by the time he came by.

"Then… Can't we just run away again? I know people who could help us-"

Susan shook her head again. "Your father is stubborn. He'll come after us again and again. No, I want to settle this for once and for all. A coup if I need to. But I won't let him hurt my baby _ever_ again."

Will got a little scared how her mother got a little infuriated. "Mom, you're scary when you're angry."

Susan's anger turned into a smile. "Sorry." She played a little with Will's hair. She rarely did that. The last time was when she told Will she had to move because of her work – which turned out to be a lie.

After a short silence, Will asked where Lavanya was.

"Your friend wasn't as lucky as you. You only passed out from exhaustion, she did something very stupid."

"Is she death?" Will gasped.

Shook her head. But that didn't mean Lavanya was all right. "She's just near death. She shouldn't have forced her transformation like that. But to imagine that she nearly killed herself to save you. She is either very kind or very stupid."

Will was a little shocked to hear Lavanya did that. "Where is she?"

"The infirmary." Susan said with a small smile, as if she knew what Will was about to do. Will tried to jump out of the bed, but Susan grabbed her with a firm hand. "Not so fast, lady. You need your rest too. Or do you want to end up like your friend?"

"But-"

"No 'buts'. You need to rest. You are lucky you survived that encounter with your father, even if he was holding back." Susan said stern.

'_Mom's scary when she's angry!'_ Will thought and crawled silently under the blankets. "Wait, holding back?"

Susan nodded. "Don't underestimate him, it is easy to do so. The fact he used that respawn magic proves it."

Will rested her head on her pillow and thought about things. How was she going to settle this? If this was just a fraction of her father's strength, how strong would he be if he went all out?

There were some options for her. To stay and survive her father's training. To stay and coup him. Or to run away as far as she could with her mother.

Will's mind hung on the former option. If she had Susan give her to Thomas, then Thomas would probably return Susan to her former social status and she might even be able get Lavanya to stay here. Both of them would have a good life as long as she did what her father wanted from her, which – according to her mother – was a hellish training to become a valid heir.

Will smiled a little as she remembered her plan to trick Ruby with her own death. If She died and Ruby would ever show her face again, the girls would realise her innocence – of course this plan went all haywire because Ruby killed herself and Will was too depressed to think at that time.

Was this plan different? To sacrifice her life for that of others – her mother and Lavanya?

'_Will, you're mad.'_ She thought. "Mom… What if you were just to hand me over to Thomas in exchange for your title?" Will asked, but in the moment after asking the question like that, she realised it was put most stupidly.

Her mother's face turned from worried but nice to an angry and stern. She stood up and walked away. "Never. _Don't_ even consider such a thing!" She opened the door.

"But-"

She stopped just outside the room with the door in her right hand. "No 'but's. I'm _not_ going to give up what I was fighting for." She slammed the door shut with incredible strength.

Will gulped. _'She's really scary sometimes.'_

Knowing her mother wouldn't let her go, she rested her head on her pillow and tried to rest. But her mind was anything but rested. Thoughts were racing through her mind like a formula racetrack. Things didn't make sense and yet they did. For example; Lavanya pointed out that only dragontitanians could walk these halls, yet Will was conscious. Then there was the fact that both her mother and father were of this race. Thus, Will wasn't human. She was dragontitanian. But did the Oracle know about this?

And if the dragontitanians were such a powerful race and all, why hadn't they stood up against Phobos and Nerissa? Why were they keeping themselves a secret to the world? Maybe for the same reason the girls had their other live a secret. Normal people would call them mad or get scared and the governments would use them as their advantage. Nothing said about how they would exploit Meridian.

'_What kind of mess did I help myself in?'_ Will wondered. She turned to her side and banned any thought out of her mind. The more she rested now, the faster she could see Lavanya.

...

When she woke a few hours later with a rumbling stomach, she found a plate with food on the nightstand next to her bed. It consisted out of some sweetened milk and a sandwich. As she was eating, her mother came in. "How are you feeling?"

Will nodded a 'yes' but didn't speak as she was still chewing on a bite of bread.

"Sorry for reacting like that. Thomas really turned my live upside down." Susan said as she sat down next to Will. "Not as much as Kandrakar turned that of you and my mother, of course."

Will was surprised to hear that name. "Wait, you know about me being a guardian of Kandrakar?"

Susan nodded. "And how you and your friend fought Phobos, my mother and your near-execution. Everyone in the colony know about that."

"Y-you know about that all- wait, fought your mother?" Will asked. "You don't mean Nerissa by any chance?"

Susan smiled a little sad. "Yes, I mean her."

Will gulped and stared at her mother. "_No. Way._ That hag is _not_ my grandmother! She can't be!"

"She never told you?"

"No! I can't believe she, of all persons, is _my_ grandmother! No wonder why you never spoke of my grandparents, she is insane!"

Susan smiled, despite the shocking news, and revealed a book. "Anyway, I brought you this book so you may learn more about the dragontitan. I have got to go back to Earth to make sure everything is all right."

Susan stood up and walked to the door and opened it.

"Mom, would you mind telling the girls I am not alive? It would only cause a war on Meridian if they discover I am here."

Susan nodded with a sad smile and was off.

Now that she was gone, Will took a better look at the book.

'Dracocyclopedia' stood with big golden letters on the front of the brown, hardcover book. Will turned it around to read the back. 'The basics of the Dragontitan.' Stood on the backside, with some authors' name whom Will never heard of before. She opened the book and paged through it. _'This is more information than my math, science and history together!'_

As she paged through it, she realised that the book was enchanted; it held more pages than the whole library of her school could ever had!

'_I'm death and instead of being free of school, I got more to study than ever before!_'

Will gave in and started with the tutorial of how to use the book. Which was pages long…

At least it held clues to what she had to know and what was negligible for her. Still, it was much. The big plus of this book was, however, that it was easy to understand and it was well explained. Even Math. Just scanning the text taught her more than she had learned in the past month. But all that information came with a headache.

'_Taranee would love to read this.'_ Will joked before putting the book aside when lunch was served for her. Lunch consisted out of tomato soup and some bread for dipping.

The things in the book she learned so far were quite interesting. Especially the things around Lavanya. Will knew that Lavanya was a weredraconian; a person with the soul of a draconian (a dragon). This made her pretty much as strong a dragon like Ursil or Lily. But there was something wrong with her: She was a dreäth.

Usually the soul of a dragon is stable when taking place in the human body – a death foetus, to be precise – but with dreäths something goes wrong and the soul is unstable. One wrong move and Lavanya's soul collapses on itself and she dies. One of those wrong moves is forcing such a transformation to become part dragon, like yesterday.

Through much training to control ones soul better – in other words, training magic – one could stabilize the soul and live normally again.

Lavanya had some perks neat over Will. Lavanya – as a redscale, the other colours had their own perks – was able to resist heat to extreme temperatures, cold to a lesser extent, resistant to human illness and resilient to toxins. She could spew fire and exceled at fire magic. Her body was more resilient and healed much faster. All in all, Lavanya had lots of advantage.

But it all had a price, even for a normal weredraconian. The need for blood - or rather the magical energy that could be extracted from blood - and sex – the body of a weredraconian was always under tension to preform its best, and sex set a mechanism in motion that lessened tension from the body much like the string of a bow, but becoming useless during the process. This is why a trustworthy person is needed, but who was this person to Lavanya?

Lavanya stole the former of Will as Ruby, but what in the future if she needed blood? Will didn't really mind if Lavanya took a bit of her blood once in a while, as long as it wasn't much.

The latter… Who did she have sex with? It was something Will rather would not think about, but she was still curious whom and what. What if Lavanya resorted to _her_, like with the blood, because Lavanya seemed to trust her? How would she react to it if Lavanya would ask something like that?

Another thing that took Will's interest in the book was Magichinan. The art of combining magic and machinery. Coincidental there was also something about this colony in it. Apparently very, very few people could use it as an ability, rather than magic, and her father and she were one of those. But it was a complicated ability and it would take time to learn it, unless she could find a way to limit it to controlling the machines. Making them was the toughest, but controlling was something even Ruby could. But she needed someone who could make them and Will just remembered the person; Pepper.

Pepper's Blacksmite wasn't just a blacksmith. She was also capable of building clockwork machines. All Will had to do was to enchant them and control them.

'_If mom lets me out tomorrow, I might just visit Pepper – _after _I visited Lavanya.'_ Will thought as she put the bread and empty bowl aside, rested her head on the pillow and tried to get some more sleep.

**…**

**A/N: So… the man in the armour is Will's dad. Who would have guessed that? Hint: pHOboS, tHOmaS. ^^  
You guys have to admit, that was sneaky. But then, _we_ _all three_ are jerks. ^^**

**Now, what will happen in next chapter?**

**And if you didn't see what the title meant: It means the bloodline of magichinanians, which Will belongs to.**

**I hope I can bring you longer chapters now. *Looks envious in TTigerz direction***


	9. The First Lesson

**Chapter 9 'First Lessons'**

She didn't care what would happen to her, as long as the headache stopped! It was pounding on her head like a hammer. Her body ached in ways she couldn't imagine. She groaned and moaned and screamed frustrated. No position allowed her to lay comfortable. The blankets were to heavy, to light, to warm to cold. Everything at the same time. She could barely notice the door open and her mother walk in. "There is something called-" Susan's voice was overthrown by Will's frustrated cry.

Susan sat down on the side of the bed with a bowl in her hands. She took the yellow towel out of some water in the bowl and folded it to a hand sized napkin. She gently turned Will on her back and lay the towel on her forehead. Will shivered as the cold cloth touched her skin and kicked with her legs.

"The flu… out of all things on Meridian you got the flu…" Susan sighed. She laid her hand on Will's shoulder and smiled. "I suppose your state is to be blamed on all that happened to you." She whispered. She stood up and left the room. "Sleep well."

Will felt the cold from the towel transfer into her body and crawled almost completely under the blankets, just before her nose, so she could still breathe.

'This isn't fair! I survived Lavanya, my father, execution! How the hell did I get the flu!'

Getting the flu was a pretty nasty surprise for Will. She was supposed to help Lavanya recover and train to defend herself against her father. But with the flu this bad, she wouldn't come out of bed for at least a week! Her father would be recovered by then and Lavanya...

Her mother came back with some chicken soup a few hours later. Will sat up and let her mother feed her. The soup removed the foul taste of her stomach from her mouth, Will was very glad for that.

"If I'm supposed to be from some _universal superior race_, how come I'm _sick_?" Will asked her mother.

Susan smiled as she filled the spoon with some soup, lifted it to Will's mouth and let her carefully drink from it.

"I think you brought it with you from Earth. But it could also be from everything happening lately, that your immune system has weakened. I really don't know. But it shouldn't last more than a few days, if you are lucky."

Luckily it was only confirmation of what she already thought. If she hadn't. she would have startled and chocked on the delicious soup.

"Isn't there anything you can do? You are supposed to be an _universal superior race_ after all." Will asked.

Her mother nodded and brought Will's hope up, but immediately smashed them down by saying something…

"Of course we have! Whitescale blood. Said to cure anything." Susan said with a smile in a way commercials said.

Will felt her stomach move up. The thought of it being blood of a draconian, after Lavanya and Ruby tapping her off, was too much for her stomach to bear.

**…**

Will slept most of the day and other wise rested and tried to remain strong and keep anything given to her in. She felt slightly better after her mother told her that Lavanya had naturally woke up from her slumber and was bound to visit her. But she wasn't the only one going to visit her. Thomass had recovered too and could pay her a visit any time now. Her whole plan had gone haywire because of tiny things making her ill, so she could only listen to her father.

Lavanya entered the room and closed the door behind her. She wore the usual garment from the past few days. Casual trousers and a hooded vest "Hey." She greeted Will and raised a hand.

Will greeted her in return and Lavanya sat down on the side of her bed, looking pitiful at Will. "Are you all right?" Will asked Lavanya.

Lavanya nodded and smiled a little. "Yeah."

They didn't say much to each other, and everything was followed by a short silence.

"Thanks… You know, for saving me." Will said softly, but added more sternly: "But don't _ever_ do _that_ again."

Will could see Lavanya knew exactly what she was talking about. The transformation. A stain on the prowess of a dreäth. "I was panicking. I had the feeling something was wrong, but the maiden didn't let me in. I can't risk losing you."

Will smiled a little. Lavanya's sacrifice made her feel guilty for her weakness, but it also gave her strength, knowing that Lavanya would always be with her.

Lavanya crawled over the bed and lay down next to Will. She rested her head on the pillow and looked up.

Will felt a strange feeling settle in her stomach. It didn't feel like she needed to puke again, but it wasn't feeling right, either. But looking at Lavanya made the feeling a little intense.

"Live is full of surprises."

Will was surprised by the randomness Lavanya spoke the words. Looking at the side of her face, Will could see the words meant something to her.

"That's what _he_ said after…" Lavanya closed her eyes and shook her head. "Never mind." She turned her head to Will and smiled. "I have you now." Will still noticed the beginnings of a tear in Lavanya's brown eyes. The colour reminded her of her own eyes. But instead of giving a positive feeling, Will could feel the sadness in them.

"What happ-"

The door opened and both girls looked at the door. It was neither a maiden nor Susan. Worse, it was Thomas. He wore a white sweater with a grey jacket over it, together with a grey trouser and black shoes. On his left wrist he wore a watch – that looked a lot like a clockwork contraption – and a scabbard on his belt holding his sword. The handle was fine made with elegant hand guards curling around the grip, much like a rapier.

"My daughter and a dreäth. How fate likes to play around." Were her father's first words. They were stern and disapproving and the way he put empathize on her being _his_ hurt her and sickened her.

Lavanya sat up in a few moves and sat much catlike towards Thomas. Her gestures reminded Will of a cat, including a little his in her voice as she said: "Racism of weredraconians is from another universe. Mind your words, _please._"

Thomas didn't seem to feel threatened at all and his face was as stern as it was when he had entered. "And so should you. I am your superior, in rank _and_ in arms. My blood is far stronger than yours."

Lavanya had grinned and moved her hand up like a claw. "How 'bout spilling that blood, then?"

Will foresaw this ending horribly and sat up and pulled Lavanya back. "Don't. He didn't even try when beating me up. If he goes all out, you're death." Will said with a hushed voice in Lavanya's ear. She suddenly felt sickness taking her body and felt back with her head on the pillow and shivered.

Lavanya turned worried towards her and laid a hand on her shoulder. After some moments, Will recovered, but left with a headache. "What is it that you want?" Will asked Thomas.

Either the headache was playing tricks on her, or he was showing a genuine smile – definitely the headache playing tricks on her – "I'm visiting my daughter to she how she is doing. The last time I saw you was with Selena, wasn't it?"

Will remembered Selena very well. It was her who send blunk to spy on Selena – _Yes._ She send the most noisy and smelly creature in the galaxy to spy on Selena. How she never noticed the passling is a mystery that still hasn't been explained – thinking she was Nerissa being glamoured as Selena. Boy, was she wrong. It was her _dad_ Nerissa had glamoured into. That had to be the clue of this.

"Ah, the woman you dumped mom for? How is she faring?" Will asked, meant as a snide remark. Her father didn't seem to take it as one, though.

"Selena? She's just a maiden I asked to act like my fiance. Sorry for the misleading lie."

He said it so _casually_, so _uncaring_, if it wasn't for the flu, she would have jumped on him like a wild animal.

"Misleading lie? Are you kidding me? My whole life was a lie! Phobos is more trustworthy than you are!" Well, Phobos couldn't be trusted at all.

Her father seemed a little offended. "Don't compare me with that mad tyrant! It was your mother who ran away with you wen you were born. I wanted you to grow up here-"

Will cut him off. "At least she had the best in mind for me! You would turn me into, what? A killing machine to follow you up! No, thanks!"

"A killing machine? Do I look like a killing machine to you?" Thomas asked outraged, gesturing with his hands open past his body as to ask her to look at him.

Lavanya casually rose her finger and nodded. "Yes, yes you do."

The remark ticked Thomas off real good and he walked up to her and wanted to grab her at her neck. "Enough of you, devil!"

Will saw Thomas' intentions and placed herself in between them, gathering all the hate she felt towards everyone and put it into a glare aimed at Thomas. He was only inches away from grabbing Will's throat instead and held his hand there for a few moments.

"Don't you dare touch my _friend_." Will hissed at him.

The slap came in an instant. She fell on her side before her right cheek started to sting and held to the hurt skin with her left hand. Thomas pulled his hand back and turned around. "Don't you dare speak to me like that, ever again. I am your father, and you will do as I tell you to do. The first thing we do after you recovered is teach you some respect."

If the hinges and the wood from the door were from any weaker material, it surely would have been destroyed by the sheer force Thomas slammed the door shut with.

Will felt her body tremble a little, but not of cold. She had never expected an encounter with her father to be so… fierce. And she thought her mother could be scary.

Even Lavanya was unsettled for a while, before looking at Will. "You're bleeding…"

Will looked at her hand and saw a red substance stick to her hand palm. Half surprised, half expected, Lavanya crawled over the bed towards her and licked her fingers and her wound. Lavanya's tongue stroking the skin of Will's cheek felt a little odd and the feeling from before rose again in her stomach. After a few licks, the wound was clean and stopped bleeding. Lavanya sat down in front of Will and smiled a little but also seemed worried.

Will returned the smile. "Thanks." She wasn't sure why she said it. Maybe for being with her against her father? Or – least possible – cleaning the wound.

"Funny. I can taste the fear in your blood." Lavanya said nearly casually.

Will looked a little worried at her. "Taste… Fear? How is that supposed to be funny?"

Lavanya shrugged and changed subject. "But, what happened in my absence and why do you look like you got the flu."

Will sighed. "Because I _have_ the flu."

Lavanya moved her face closer than was comfortable for Will and glanced at at her. "So…This is what it looks like to have the flu. You know, I never had the flu. Never can have too!"

Will let her head fall on her pillow. "Lucky. You."

"Come on, it isn't that bad?" Lavanya asked ignorant.

Will covered herself under her blanket and groaned. "The only thing worse are my dad."

"Your dad?"

Will pulled the blanket a bit back till she could just look at Lavanya. "Didn't you know? The person in charge of this place is my dad."

Lavanya tilted her head a little in surprise. "Really? So you mean you're a dragontitanian colony princess! That's great, you know!"

Will shook her head. "Not with my father! He's going to kill me in order to make me a heir. You already know what he did to me, before you melt him."

"Looks like all dads are mad." Lavanya said.

Will remembered that Lavanya said her father abused her. Lavanya shook her head and muttered. "Never mind. So, how long are you going to be sick?"

Will shrugged. "Mom said for a few days…"

Lavanya suddenly climbed under the blankets and lay down next to her and grinned. "I'll make sure you're not lonely!"

**…**

Lavanya kept her word and lay close to Will under the blankets. Susan was a bit surprised to see them like this, but loudly – muttering – admitted that they looked cute the way they were. Thomas, however… He didn't like his dauchter sleeping together with a dreäth like that. Something in Will made her drag lines between draconians wanting sex and her and Lavanya being so close. But would Lavanya really want to have sex with _her_? They were girls and… and… It was just wrong in so many ways! They were just friends.

Whatever the reason of her father might be, she wasn't about to give Lavanya up because of something like that. And the thought she had just a moment ago was whisked away as Lavanya didn't seem to try anything. Of course they hugged a little and slept against each other, but that didn't mean anything.

She pulled the blankets off her and swung her legs over the side. – Sadly – she had recovered from her flu and this meant Thomas was going to begin her training. At least she managed to bargain for two things in exchange for her cooperation; Lavanya's presence and Susan's title. Thomas was reluctant to give in, but he somehow switched ideas rather quickly Her mother was the Lady again and Lavanya would be present as her personal maiden/bodyguard. Thomas hated to admit that a weredraconian would be a much stronger bodygaurd than any of which he could choose of. Even in her condition.

A maiden came in and told them Thomas was waiting for them in fifteen minutes for them in the _real_ dining hall. Will startled a little, now she had to shower and such. To Lavanya, the need to shower seemed to be alien.

"You never took a shower before?"

Lavanya shook her head. "Nope. The usual dive in the river sufficed. There was no running water in the apartment."

Will blushed as she realized that with this time frame she and Lavanya had to shower _at the same time._ This was something Will was alien to and she disliked the idea. Lavanya didn't seem to care and was interested into taking a shower. She was undressed and entered the bathroom. The door was just beside the bed on her side.

Will sighed. _'There is nothing wrong with this. We already saw each other nude before. This won't be a problem! Besides, Lavanya doesn't seem interested in things like this.'_ The latter was something Will was really glad off.

She undressed herself and followed Lavanya into the bathroom. The brunette was trying to figure out the handles for cold and warm water before Will showed how they worked. She was the first to step under the water. Lavanya followed suit. The shower was just big enough for the two of them, but the spray of water wasn't. In a sudden impulse, Lavanya pressed her front against Will's front. The feeling of Lavanya's nude body against hers made Will feel uncomfortable. _'Don't worry! There is nothing weird about this! It's just like hugging, but without clothes and…'_

Will shook her head, took a step back and turned around. "I-I can't do it like that!"

Lavanya was surprised to hear her say that. "What's wrong?"

The unpleasant feeling swirled around her belly and she hugged herself. "T-that. Don't just touch me like that. Okay… it's weird."

"S-sorry." Lavanya softly said, the surprise and confusion clearly audible in her voice. "But what's wrong with it?"

Will bit shyly on her lower lip and tried to find an answer, but she somehow couldn't think and only picture Lavanya's body in front of her eyes. Unable to handle the situation furter, she stepped out of the shower, took a towel, wrapped it around her and hurried out of the bathroom. She sat down on the side of the bed and waited for Lavanya to finish. In the meantime Will tried to figure out what was wrong with her and her body.

Lost in thoughts, she startled as Lavanya tapped on her shoulder. Will looked up, expecting to see Lavanya without cover, even already picturing it, but she wasn't.

"It's your turn." Lavanya said with a little smile.

Will nodded and took her turn. Her feelings made her lose a lot of time, but she didn't know what to do with them.

She finished the bathroom rituals and dressed up in the clothes she wore before. Lavanya was so kind to bring the clothes to her, granting Will the ever needed privacy.

Once done, they hurried towards the _real_ dining hall. As they entered, they saw Thomas and Susan already eating, sitting on a large table filled with all kinds of things in the middle of the room. There were two servants, ready to do whatever was asked of them. One behind Thomas and the other next to the entrance.

"You are one minute late." Thomas stated as Will and Lavanya took chairs and sat down. "As a proper heir you should-"

"Oh shut up, Thomas. Give Will some time to adapt. It's not like you are always strictly on time." Susan said calmly, cutting him off. "Like on our wedding."

Will ignored how her parents started an argue and gathered some food to eat. Her meal consisted out of some freshly backed breads, bacon, cheese and a boiled egg. Lavanya took similar things, but a bit more meat than vegetables, as to be expected from her.

Once the row between her parents was over, Susan turned to Will. "How did you sleep?"

Will just put some bread in her mouth, so nodded instead. Lavanya answered the question by yawning and stretching her arms high in the air. "Much better than at home, that's for sure!"

Knowing a bit about Lavanya, Will guessed everything was better than her home. But even for her the bed was excellent Of course, her fat- Thomas was going to ruin that perk. Today he would start with tutoring her to become his heir. As if on cue, he started about the lessons.

"Since my last test went a little bad," Thomas gave Lavanya a hidden stern glance, clearly giving off his annoyance to her – Lavanya either didn't notice, or didn't care – "I'm going to test you again."

"What? I'm not going to fight you again! You nearly killed back there if it wasn't for Lavanya!" Will startled.

"It shows how weak you are. You are not a little kid anymore, Will. You need-"

"I defeated Phobos and Nerissa with the girls, barely knowing what is going on." Will said. The thought about the girls hurt her a bit, but she ignored the feeling of guilt and focused on flooring her father.

"I know what you did and you should know you are not a front soldier anymore. You will be commander of one of Dragontitan's most powerful mechanized armies, seconded only to the City of Fire itself." Thomas said. "You have much to learn."

"Yeah, you too! I'm not a little kid anymore! I'm almost seventeen!"

"And that's exactly why I should start tutoring you." Thomas said, turning Will's argument against herself.

"Why must it happen so quickly? You still got forty years left or so."

"a hundred and sixty." Susan corrected. "Dragontitanians live around the two hundred years."

"Two... Hundred?"

"I have a thousand years to fill!" Lavanya added with a grin.

Will looked confused around. "I-I'm going to be 200?"

Susan nodded with a smile. "Some say it's a perk, some say it's a curse."

Will took a moment to take this information in and turned to her father. "So, you still got a century in front of you. Why is it so important to train me? Once you pass away, I'll be over aged anyway."

Thomas sighed deeply. "There are only a handful of magichinans. Every add-on to the army is a plus. That is why you need to train. I'm not going to say I'm the last, but we are certainly not with many."

Lavanya interfered with the conversation saying something Will rather didn't want to hear. "So why didn't you make more?"

Will felt her cheeks heat up. "Don't just ask something like that!"

Lavanya turned to her with a look in her eyes she hadn't a clue what she just asked.

Thomas continued with his story as if nothing happened (annoyance was showing on his face as a few extra frowns) and Susan tried to hide a smile behind her hand.

"Therefore you must be thought the arts as quickly as possible. We'll start after dinner with the basics." Thomas continued.

With Lavanya having created an awkward end to Thomas' explanation, Will continued eating.

After dinner she and Lavanya followed Thomas through the palace. Despite having been here for weeks, she did not know where they were going. All she had done in the meantime was reading.

After rounding some corners and walking through various corridors, they reached a double door leading into a large, circular room. Along the wall hung a large variate of weapons, much like when Will had to fight Thomas.

Thomas walked to the center of the room, drew his sword and pointed it at Will.

"Weapons practice? I though we were going to-"

A bolt of electricity ran through the sword and Will was sure she was going to be hit but the bolt didn't jump off it and the sword collapsed in a tenner of parts, except the handle. The blade of the sword was made of a hollow steel tube. Thomas then aimed the handle to the ground and the parts started to join back together.

"At the very basics of Magichinan magics stands the ability to pull things appart and rejoin them." Thomas explain. He then threw the sword in Will's direction. Even though she was taken by surprise, the time with the Rebels allowed her to catch the handle. She took notice that the blade didn't had any imperfecties from consisting out of multiple parts, which there should be at the spots where the parts joined.

"Isn't this just telekinese?" Will asked him.

"In a way. Though it isn't like the Earth Guardian's telekinese, mind you. Not only do you have to move 16 parts, you have to puzzle them together in less than a moment. This is where Magichinan differs from simpletons magic like telekinese. I assume you read in your book how to use our magic in it's raw form?"

Will nodded. She had read somewhere that there are two forms of magic used by the Dragontitanians. One was known as 'raw magic'. Most simply put, it was the same magic as Kandrakar used. The advantage was the lack of having to use hand signs. The major disadvantage was the massive amount of energy it used.

She held her hand towards the puzzle pieces and used 'raw' magic to try and move them. Of course she never used telekinesis before, as that was Cornelia's area, but she tried to mimic things as best she could.

The first thing she had to do was pull the sword apart. She noticed the telekinesis working, but on the whole sword. She had to find the top piece and pull it off, not take the sword out of her hand.

Thomas looked silently at Will's attempts, giving her nothing but a stern look. Will tried her best, but she couldn't manage to separate the sword. After a few minutes Thomas walked to the wall and took a spear of the wall. He then walked back to her and handed it to her. "This one is made out of two pieces. It should be easier for you to grab the basics."

"Why give me the sword, if it's so hard to do it?" Will wondered.

Thomas shrugged. "I hoped you would show me of some hidden talent of a genius " He said, with a clear hint of snide in his tone. "Now, try again."

Will tried it again. Again it took some minutes and she could see her father's discontent growing. He was a bit unfair though. She never used telekinesis and now she had to do this. She tried to remember what he did. When his sword fell apart, he used a bolt of electricity.

She realized how'd done it and send a bolt of electricity through the spear. Somewhere around the middle, the spear disjointed and the upper part fell on the ground.

Will looked up to see Thomas clap without meaning to compliment her. "Good, now put it back together."

Of course she had to figure out how to repair the sword without Thomas' help. Letting her brains work as hard as possible, trying to recollect all the info from the book and what she saw. Of course, letting the pieces levitate and fitting them together didn't work. But when she did this while sending a bolt through the pieces, they seemed to stick together.

"Excellent, now repeat this until you can do the same with the sword."

Will looked surprised at Thomas at the door. "What? That's it? You're going to leave me here, doing this over and over again?"

"This is the very basic of Magichinan. If you can't do it, the rest won't work." He said and left the room.

Once the door closed, Will felt the energy drain of the past minutes and sat half-fainting down. Lavanya came out of the shadows where she had been watching and rushed towards her. "Are you all right?"

Will let the spear go and grabbed her head. It felt like her brain was drained and she felt light in her head. After a few moments the feeling faded slightly. "I-I'm fine."

"Using raw magic is though, èh?" Lavanya asked as she sat down opposite of Will.

"Yeah. It's much more draining than normal training with the girls. Maybe it's because I've no connection to the aurameres or so." Will wondered.

"Connected or not, you should be glad you're rid of it. Kandrakar's way of using magic is horrible." Lavanay said with a smile. "You need to develop your own pool of magic. You can't rely on a gem all the time."

Will smiled a little as she remembers how dependent she used to be on the Heart and Kandrakar. But with this magic, she wasn't bound to anything at all, except herself. "The only problem is that I don't know how to use your magic and Thomas isn't going to teach me."

"I don't know much more than you either, but I could teach you what I know." Lavanya suggested.

Will took the offer and they continued training together. Of course Thomas wasn't pleased with this at all, but Will manage to convince him - using his massive ego - by saying that she needed a proper body guard. And who would be a better body guard for his daughter than someone trained by him personally?


End file.
